Primer and Painting Begins

June 8, 2009

I didn't work on the bird yesterday (hence no blog) but I made up for lost time with that today. I gave the fuse and wings a final sanding after 3 coats of sanding sealer (and sanding between coats) and applied Ace hardware's gray primer (it took 3 cans for one coat). I must say, all of the sanding, bondo, filler, and sanding sealer helped, because with only two blemishes spotted, I can move on to the final painting!

Today my credit card statement reflected the $248 shipped for the hardware, sheet metal, steel, and decal kits, and the Aluminium-spun spinner cost $55.67 shipped, so those parts should all be in by the time I get back on Sunday from Ohio.

I am taking a five day hiatus from the project, but I think that I'll have it completed by the 24th at the rate I'm going! I'm actually exactly where I was hoping to be before leaving. Tomorrow, I'd like to finish the landing gear assembly while awaiting the arrival of the parts, and also work on fashioning wing spacers for the dihedral in the wing. Aside from this, finish painting!

I was also able to spray the cockpit area black. I chose a epoxy-based enamel for this area, since it will experience wear and tear. It came out well! I originally was going to do Olive Drab, but the one I saw at the Fly-in a few weeks back expose numerous flaw, so I opted for black, which I must say, looks sharp! This is a more durable paint too than the traditional enamels, but I plan to assemble a seat and seat cushions to cover these, but I also wanted to just make it last when the seat rubs against the wood.
The black was also applied for the glare shield and instrument panel areas.

One final note, a reminder; this is only a toy. It's not going to be perfect, but I'm striving to do justice with the paint scheme. I'll do my best to completely recapture DD2's paint scheme, but if I fall short, I'll still be very happy with the outcome! There is a confession at this point in teh build: The fuselage has a slight bow in it, similar to a banana. If this was a real airplane, I'd have scraped it. Its very slight, and you can somewhat see it in this picture.