Main landing gear

Started to bolt on the main lading gear. There were too few bolts and only 6 nuts (should be 10). Some of the nuts are also extremely tight. Have to order more together with some other hardware and main light.

Hoist

Bought a hoist so I can move the fuselage around

Painted the aft fuselage underside

While am at it. Have to rivet it on later.

Fuselage and horizontal stab

The horizontal stab is no finished. Polished alu and orange on the upside and gray and orange on the under side. Painted the fuselage on the underside.

Orange on the horizontal tail

Orange on the leading edge, in the same manner as the vertical tail. The wings will also have these colors. The vertical tail, as well as the wings have gray paint (RAL 7035) on the underside to better withstand the dirt and mud. The over-side is polished aluminium and orange (RAL 2000).

Grade C on right fuselage

One pass of grade C

F9 on right fuselage

Pass 1 and 2 on right hand fuselage. Actually 3 at some places. Also finished left with C.

2 passes of F9 on left fuselage

This is what 2 passes of F9 looks like. There will be orange trims and the whole underside of the fuselage will be gray (3 in 1 RAL 7035). I have seen some do the F9 polishing on the plates before assembly. That might be a good idea, particularly on the underside of the wing/fuselage. I'm not totally convinced, because curved surfaces are much easier to polish than straight surfaces.

According to "David A" at sonexbuilders.net, polishing is like: The way I tell when it is sufficiently polished is when the hazy image of Joe cool pilot becomes a sharp clear image of an old fart.

Polishing

Polishing the fuselage. 1 round of F9 first.

Paint

Painted the underside of the elevator and horizontal stab.

Painting

On the underside of the fuselage, tail and mid wing, there will be light gray (RAL 7035). Started painting the flaps and the lower part of the rudder.

Polishing and paint

The vertical fin painted, and started polishing the fuselage.

Painting vertical fin

Using 3 in 1 and painting the vertical fin yellow-orange, or RAL 2000 to be more specific. The whole plane will be a mix of polished alu, orange and grey.

The Power Coat 3 in 1 is an industrial paint based on modified polyester. I have used it for several things, and it is equally strong as the polyurethane I used in the cockpit. Really easy to use, and the surface is matt-ish.