Final finish

[Skyline]

I was wondering to get that real fighter finish, if it is good to body fill and skim , and waterpaper those badly fitting rivets and panel joints on the wings and Fuselage. There are always some, its hand built!
Will look super smooth , but what product do I use and will it crack over time?

Anyone done it before. Hopefully the performance will be better and the weight increase negligible ?

[Carl Froehlich]

No. Be proud of those rivets! This only adds weight and does not improve performance or anything else, including looks.

Carl

[rockwoodrv9]

You can probably get about the same results by spraying an extra cost of primer over the rivet lines and then sanding most of the extra primer off. The small amount of primer around the rivets will make them almost disappear.

I found this out by painting my wings and then deciding I did not like the design. I sanded back to part primer and part bare metal. I re-primed, lightly sanded, painted, and the rivets can still be seen but are very smooth. They were good rivets before I painted so this will not cover up bad rivets or smiles. What is does do is make all the rib lines and the front of the ribs show up even more. With the rest of the wing so flat, you see every imperfection. Before you get to a final finish, make sure you do any shaping or flattening of the rib bulges - especially in the leading edge of the wing and tank.

As far as looks - it is your plane - make it look how you want. As long as you are not piling the bondo on, you will not add much weight. I would not do control surfaces since balance can become a problem.

Have fun and as long as you don't mind the extra time, go for it. Some will love it and some will not. But, it isn't their plane - it is yours!

[tgmillso]

I just painted my fuselage and suffered this same dilemma, not from an aesthetics position, but adequately sealing the rivets so that there was no risk of moisture creeping in behind the rivet head. I was using etch primer which is unfortunately not compatible with many fillers, so what I ended up doing was shooting every individual rivet with a 0.8mm touchup gun, then shooting the rivet lines with a line as wide as your finger then finally putting on a complete cover coat. When laying on the top coat, I shot the rivet lines again twice again with the touchup gun to ensure that all the rivets were bridged, then finally shot two top coats. You can still make out the rivet positions quite clearly, however there is no gap between the rivet and the skin. I am convinced that if using a fillable 2k primer, it would be more weight advantageous to fill every individual rivet manually compared to shooting the lines with a spray gun, however you will likely be see the rivets well after filling manually, but this may be your intention.
Tom.