Easy stuff.

First, sand that sucker smooth as glass. Fill any voids, surface prep is the most critical part. Believe me, paint will show even the SLIGHTEST defect. So take your time, sand the heck out of it, and work it down to 1000 grit.

Here is where a lot of people part ways. Seal the wood. Some people use hairspray and lightly sand, but I use balsarite cut about 60/40 with ironex. Brush it on, let it dry, then sand it smooth.

Now take some finishing resin and .75 oz glass cloth. Cut the cloth so you do your fuselage in 2 pieces, one per side. You will overlap them about 1/4". Cut them larger than need be at first, then trim to size later.

Now mix your resin, and then cut it with acetone 50/50. Take a 1" brush and spread it evenly across the cloth. (put the cloth down first, then apply resin THROUGH The cloth). Be sure the resin is wet, you'll see dry spots if you missed anything. Just keep it thin and even, or it gets heavy. The acetone will evaporate, leaving the resin on the surface to cure. When you get to teh edges, do your final trim and stick it down. Now let it cure for 24 hours, then sand the edges so the glass on the other side will stick, and do the other side.

Now let the whole thing cure for a few days so it's nice and hard.

Sand it down with 400 grit paper until it's smooth.

BRUSH on your first primer coat. Sand it ALL THE WAY OFF. You should be able to look very closely and see a tiny bit of primer in each of the cloth voids. Now spray your next coat, and sand it completely off as well. Spray your 3rd coat, and see how it looks. If it's smooth as a baby's backside, sand with 400 lightly until you can just begin to see through the primer, then go over the whole thing with 1000 grit.

Now go over your plane with a tack cloth and wipe it down with rubbing alcohol, and your ready to paint.

And that part depends on which paint you are using. PPG is hard to beat.

There are as many ways to do it as there are people doing it, but this one is relatively easy and you won't mess up (usually),

-Mike