I spent some time yesterday sanding out more ugly spots and touching up paint. Today I declared the fuselage painting complete and took off all the masking tape. Look at all its majesty:
After that I took all the clecoes that had overspray on them and soaked them in lacquer thinner to loosen up the paint. Then I took each one and cleaned it up with a rag, which took approximately half of forever. But I got this cool photo of the paint being bubbled off the surface:
Next I spent some time playing with the brake lines and rudder pedals. I think the brake hoses I ordered will work out, which is good because custom hoses are expensive. But before I permanently install the pedals I need to get the parking brake installed, so I fitted the bracket I made earlier to the firewall:
Since the hoses put a noticeable amount of torque on the parking brake, I was worried about the thin firewall flexing and cracking. I made a 0.063" doubler for the forward side to beef up this area. It ties into the crosswise stiffener on the back of the firewall and helps spread the load out. The weird rivet spacing along the top side is to clear the rivets that are already there underneath, and the two big holes are just lightening holes.
While I was priming the above parts, I primed and painted the F-742 seat floors. Although I didn't prime the fuselage interior before painting (there is some PPG wash primer on there already when it arrives from the quickbuild factory, for whatever that's worth) I did decide to prime the floorboards before painting since they will be subject to greater wear. I'll do the remaining interior panels as time permits.
I would have gotten more done today, but I had to deal with this little situation this morning:
Stupid fence. Grrr.