Chapter 25 - Finishing

    Sand, sand, sand.  It's the composite builder's lot in life.  I filled and sanded as I went, so as not to have a huge amount of it to do at the end.  The downside of this is that occasionally I had to redo work as I dripped epoxy on smooth surfaces, or needed to plastic-wire-brush an area to remove filler and rough it up to attach a new layer.  But mostly, I'd recommend sanding as you go.
    I tried both epoxy and micro, and Stitts SuperFil, as fillers.  Both are light and sandable, and of course epoxy-based.  With the Stitts, I had some mixing problems, leading to flaking parts later.  Since I was using EZ-Poxy, both of these needed overnight cure before they could be sanded; I never tried using the West system.  I also never experimented with Cab-O-Sil.

    For paint, I used Smooth Prime, by Stitts Poly-Fiber, to prime the airplane.  The stuff is water-based, non-toxic, fills pinholes like a dream, and just rolls on with a roller!

    I decided to get started early; as you've seen from the pictures, I experimented on the fuselage underside a long time ago.  Then put it off when I realized that primer that site long-term collects oils, and thus doesn't adhere as well with the top coat.  After a long hiatus, I resumed painting; with everything but the cowl built, I separated the control surfaces and canard, and primed them completely:

    Sounds so easy, doesn't it?  Roll on three coats, spend an eternity sanding smooth, curse as you sand through near a corner somewhere.  Repeat ad nauseum.  Eventually, I stopped sanding through.  

    However, experimentation showed that the gloss coat didn't roll on nearly so well.  I'd have to spray.  One el cheapo hardware-store HVLP sprayer later, I was in business.  I had to use it in pressure-sprayer mode, not siphon mode...I'd gotten a sprayer that said it did both, though, alarmingly, it popped out the recessed butt of the spray bottle the first time I pressurized it.  Oh well, it's a pressure-worthy bottle now.

    About two and a half eternities later, I had an airplane, primed and sanded, cleaned and ready for top coat.

    There was no way I would ever get the hangar clean enough to spray the top coat. I hired the job out. After some delay, I got good parts back!