New Year's day turned out to be pretty low-key at my house and I was able to finish covering the Zero. I use Sig's lightweight silkspan and apply it wet using dope as the adhesive. (Just love the smell of dope!) I covered it from the tail forward so that the seams were facing rearwards, and did the fuselage / stab / fin with 9 pieces. I do a dry fitting of the silkspan first, mark the dimensions in pencil, and then cut the piece. Using exact-sized pieces means you have to be careful when applying the wet silkspan - a certain amount of tugging and sliding and rubbing is required - but I've found that I get a better overall fit and a tighter finish as a result. A few areas had "stubborn wrinkles" that had to be rewet and then "encouraged" using a blow dryer, but overall I'm very happy with the results. After each piece dries I put on a thin coat of dope so I'm ready for the next piece of wet silkspan. Once it's all covered I put on another coat of dope, then do a very light sanding so I'm ready to paint.

I bought a Paasche airbrush this summer but never got around to buying a compressor so my Brother has been playing around with it all summer. I found a compressor on sale at Lowes just before Christmas and now I'm dying to try it out. I'm going to use the A6M5 green & white finish with the yellow leading edge. Always thought that was the "coolest" Zero finish. Hope to get the white paint on today, but the green paint is on order so that'll have to wait until next weekend.

eroc