I’ve been dealing with a man cold that reared its ugly head yesterday, so I’m moving a bit slower than usual…

That being said, I was able to get the top of the left wing and the left winglet in white epoxy primer.

It seems with the time it takes to finally get whatever larger component that I’m shooting prepped and cleaned, then the primer mixed up with its requisite 30 minute induction period… it’s close to dark when I start shooting, and then dark by mid-shoot.

Combine this with the issues I’ve been having with my goggles steaming up (it’s still very hot here) and sometimes it’s very hard to see exactly my paint laydown pattern.  Thus, there are a few runs here and there (I plan to resolve this before final color coat is shot).

Along with the top left wing and winglet, I also shot the top of the ailerons with white epoxy primer.

As well as shooting the right strake storage hatch door and the top cowling oil check door with white epoxy primer.

Then, using pencil markings as a “poor man’s” guide coat, I sanded down the front and aft micro fills on the aft nose/avionics cover (pic 1).  I was ready to epoxy wipe the new micro on the nose cover after sanding, but alas, I needed another round of micro on both the aft side and nose side of the cover (pic 2).

I’ve been noticing more pin holes than I expected, especially in areas of “raw” micro that I didn’t subsequently epoxy wipe… a few of these have slipped through where I’ve broken through the epoxy wiped surface down to raw micro.  I think it might also be by not allowing the first coat of primer to flash enough before adding the next coat, so the off-gassing creates a tiny air bubble that pops and leaves a small pin hole.

I’ve added 5 minutes to my flash time in between coats (20 minutes, from 15) but still have a number of pin holes and small divots to fill from before.  The worst I’ve had so far on any component was the underside surface of the aft wheel pants, which had dozens of pin holes…. but 15 seconds of slathering on finishing putty eliminates those quite easily.

Speaking of finishing putty, here is the stuff that Mike Toomey recommended to me, which is WAY cheaper than my Evercoat Metal Glaze (seems to be the same stuff) that I had before (a big bottle that dried up on me).

Pressing forward!