Greg, by the time I got my plane to the point where yours is now I started getting concerned about weight so I cut way back on the finishing products. I'll try to keep this brief but here goes.
The plane is covered in japanese tissue, the tissue went over the cloth hinges, hinge material was a Dave Brown product (coverall I think).
Sanding sealer was only spot applied to the areas where I thought it absolutely needed it, mostly the hinge lines. Even though the plane needed it I didn't go over with spot repair putty. Sealed it all off with a sprayed-on coat of Sig Nitrate clear.
Mixed Sig black with Sig white to make "Polar Gray". Sprayed on one coat of this and was satisfied enough to start my colors. I did not "spray it on, sand it off with 400, spray it on, sand it off with 400, etc." Like I said, I was trying to save weight.
Masking material was plain old 3M blue masking tape. A couple of 2" wide rolls were enough for all the masking/backmasking for my dark colored plane. I slice up my own 1/4",1/8", and even 1/16" widths. This does a couple things. When I lay down a 4'long strip of the tape onto a Formica (or glass,or granite) surface, slice it into my narrow widths, and then roll it back up, the process reduces some of the tackiness. It's an old trick and I certainly didn't invent it. Remember you only need enough tack to keep the tape from creeping while going around corners.
The narrow strips get rolled back onto bottle tops similar to the ones on your typical fuel jug. These are easily handled between a thumb and index finger of one hand while the other hand is free to push the tape around a scallop, or what-have-you. I don't spray the edges with clear prior to laying down the color (laziness, but I've gotten away with it so far). There is a reason why this paragraph is the longest one, all the meticulous work in a typical paint job is in the masking and backmasking!
All my colors are sig and the "freshest" jar I had was about 5 years old. The oldest (red) is about 15. I usually buy it in 4 oz. jars, mixed 50/50 with Sig thinner and that's a lot of one color for me. It gets sprayed on preciously thin, so thin it's actually transluscent. If you put your nose up to my planes you can see the balsawood. I use an old Devilbiss touch-up gun, cup on the bottom. At this point you can still see the grain.
Mix a half gallon Lite coat and a half gallon Sig thinner, some fish-eye killer and Dave Brown flex-all, and spray until it's all gone. Wet sand with 1200, buff with Brasso, wax, the whole schmear.
Old technology by today's standards but I love it. I still glue with Ambroid. I'm typing with Ambroid dried on my fingers right now!
I hope there's something in here that helps Greg. Thank for giving me this chance to share another doping procedure. None of these ideas are mine, they're mostly from Windy.
