Hi Tony - having read through your fun & games with brushmarks I thought I'd try something a little different as an experiment on the J3.

It too, is being covered with Stits Lite, which I did fasten with PolyTak, but then I thought I might go back in time somewhat, and try a more traditional approach from there on, to see how it would behave.

Now, I know that the following is NOT recommended by PolyFibre but hey, it seems to work really well.....

One coat of Nitrate dope overall.
My 'rib stitch' strips were then lightly held in position with a stripe of more nitrate dope. Not a lot, you just don't want them to move about.
Pinked tapes then over them, brushed into position with a good coating of more dope, making sure that all the points are down. Finger rubbing is ok, but not really needed.
Allow to dry. Check the points, and lightly dope down any that are not fastened.
One further good overall coat of dope.
Allow to dry.
Very lightly sand with 4-600 dry to get rid of any nubs etc. Nothing more.

I'm then painting using latex (http://www.houstonhobbies.com/tips/p...ying-latex.pdf) which works like a dream. Limitless colors, the price is very right, and it really sticks like the proverbial you know what...

I've attached a pic of the rudder that's only had one very light coat of latex so far, so you can get an idea what it looks like - not a brushmark in sight - and no heavy sanding either.
It's a little transparent right now, but a few more light coats will solve that.

Food for thought?
Mike