2/28/2005

Sanding

Did I mention sanding? Holy mackerel, has this been a lot of sanding. I think my fingers are numb. This update is quite short, since all that's been going on for the last 3 months has been paint, sand, paint, sand... And not much point to show you pictures of an airplane that looks just like all the other pictures you've seen.

But...there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Currently, the sanding of coat 3 of primer is nearing completion. This coat is being taken down finer than the previous ones, which is down to 400 grit paper level. Hand sanding a 13 foot airplane with 400 paper, quite simply takes a long time. When this is finished, the plane will be in shape for the panel lines to be laid on. I'm really looking forward to this, after what will be 4 months total of painting and sanding. You can close your eyes, and run your hand over the surface and not feel one imperfection in it's shape... quite gratifying.

The shot you see here, shows the nose section, having been 400 grit sanded. The aft section is what it looks like after 220 sanding. It's funny, that after painting, the paint is dark. Initial sanding with 120, then 220, makes it look light, because of all the scratches in the surface. When you start getting to 400, it starts going dark again, as you sand away the scratches from the previous sanding.

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