Mark, those look terrific.
How about a couple of tutorials? One for the joint between the tip and the surface, and one for painting color and clear with Stewart?
Thanks!
Dave
RV-3B, working on the composite canopy frame for mine
Not sure I'll get to making videos, but I'll add a bit more and I am happy to answer questions. Warning, though, I am a novice; most of this I learned from here or trial and error.
For the tips, I did as suggested here with micro/flox mix for build up, and then as I got close just micro. I did cleco the tips on, and sand to fit. Once I installed I used aeropoxy filler (from ACS) to cover the rivet holes and blend the metal side to the fiberglass. When doing this I'd tape upto the metal edge to try to keep the filler out of the gap. I would also us a credit card to try and pull out any filler in the gap. Then I'd use a razor blade when it was dry to scrape the filler edge, then fold a piece of a sand paper in half to sand the gap. I sanded the gap this way between every application (filler, primer, paint, etc.) This made for consistent gap among all the parts. I don't know if this will hold up or not. I read where some folks said not to fill the gap as it might crack, so I decided to do it this way. However, there is some filler in the gap at the base and around the edge. Hopefully if there are cracks, they won't be noticeable. I intentionally chose a dark color for all the gaps as I figured it would hide potential cracks and also if the gaps weren't quite square it won't be as noticeable.
For the clear it wasn't to hard. I painted the base per the instructions. I used their primer, sanded, top coated the entire piece white, sanded it to 1000 grit, then I taped off the stripe and blue section. I started with the black stripe, painted it per their instructions. After a day I masked off the stripe and went to do the blue/clear. I painted the blue per the instructions, but I did lay it a little thinner than normal, just barely wet. I did this for a couple reasons. First, I could not afford to get a run as it wouldn't sand out well with the clear on top (without clear a little run is no problem to sand out as I am wet sanding anyways). Second, I wanted to minimize risk of solvent pop. With the Stewart paint, if you get solvent pop it is horrible (at least in my experience; tons of bubbles that go to the base of the paint and you cannot fix it, you must start over). My first attempt of clear over the blue, I had pop and had to sand it all off. Third, weight, trying to not over do the paint. I made sure I sprayed and equal amount to the masking paper as I used this as my test piece. After I got my lightly wet top coat, I let it dry about 1.5 hours. I figured I wanted it tacky, not cured, but somewhat cured (again the pop); I ensured I could press on the paint on the masking paper with a finger and get no paint transfer, then I did the same check on a piece of the painted part that was hidden. Then I sprayed the clear much like the blue, per the instructions. 3 fog/tack coats, then a final wet coat giving time in between coats to tack up, then a wet coat. Again, I cut back a little on the wet coat. It was just barely opaque, dries clear. On my first attempt with all the pop, I had sprayed it on heavy like normal and it was beyond just barely opaque. Anyways, similar reasons before for not putting on a wet final coat, just barely wet. Once it dried, wet sanded 1500/2000/3000 then 3m compound/polish/fine polish. On the wetsand with 1500, I just barley knocked down any orange peel, as I knew the clear was thin. I did bust through on the bottom of the rudder. Lucky it was the bottom. I am not going to fix it, as you can't really see it (and this isn't a show plane) and the base is a single stage. Anyways, I've rambled for a while. I'd be happy to answer questions, but not really setup to do videos.