This picture shows the vertical stabilizer and rudder temporarily mounted for measurement and alignment. I used string under the fiberglass to give the rudder a fabric covered look.	I primed the fuselage so that I could block sand it and find low spots.	After block sanding, remaining primer indicates a low spot. I found lots of low spots.
	A thin coat of body filler is applied to fill the low spots.	This side did not have as many low spots, but had a lot of vertically oriented waves.
Another coat of primer.	Here, Charles Wilhite is applying a black powder that helps identify the low spots better than just sanding down the primer. It allows for a lighter sanding. The low spots contrast better.	After using the carbon black, the fuselage is sanded to find more low spots.
The low spots are filled with body filler.	The area is re-primed.	Here, I am filling pin holes with primer. Notice how "comfortable" I look. I must have spent 100 hours in this position while building the plug.
I filled the pin holes using a "Q-Tip" dipped in primer. This turned out to be a bad idea. The primer is real hard when it dries. It is very hard to sand.	Another sanding to find low spots.	Another filling. I went through this process at least eight times.
Finally, it's ready to paint. I decided to follow some advice and build up some working room around the cockpit area. This will make it easier to build the mold, and then the part.	Here, I covered the foam with body fill to give it a hard surface before painting.	Finally! It's painted. Not bad looking, but up close there are lots of flaws in the paint.
Now begins the process of wet sanding. It was done three times. Once each with 800, 1500 and 2000 grit.	This is how it looked after the wet sanding process.	After wet sanding, we buffed the whole thing with a light buffing compound.
Here Kevin Devaney helps wax the plug. We waxed it four times, using a paste wax meant for bowling alley floors. Kevin is building an airplane from scratch in the same manner as I am. His experience has helped me out a lot. Almost five years to the day I started it, the plug is done. I decided it couldn't get much better. Any more sanding would have made things worse instead of better. The fiberglass was starting to come through the resin. That is very hard to fix. In some spots the fiberglass had to be cut out all together. I filled the holes with body fill. The finish looks great. There is a bit of distortion due to the wide angle lens. I may have over done it a bit, but I am truly happy with the outcome.
Click on any photo to see an expanded version.