if i have gaps and dings in the wood of the plane what do i use to fill it in with? also does every little ding show through the monokote if i dont fill them in?

I use a product called Paint and Patch. You can get it at the Home Depot. It sands well and is light weight. Good Luck, Dave

Use light weight spackling,you can get it at home depot or mabe a paint store.If you want to tint it with some latex paint to match the wood you can.

Take a little time using your sealing iron and a damp cloth to steam out most of the dings before covering. This method works well with dinged furniture, gun stocks, and other sorted wood items. A good deal of small dings can be removed by light ironing over the area even after its covered.

Regular old cheap household plaster wall spackling is easier to work with than the lite weight variety and no more than you are using it doesn't weigh that much

Get it at the discount drug store

Any of the above. Personally I use Elmer's Wood Filler

I do this alot as well, but I use a 50% mix of denatured alcohol and water in a spray bottle the mix puffs up the balsa and alot of the dings just dissappear, no heat.

for filling I like the Minwax Stainable wood filler its a bit harder than ordinary spackle and sticks to the wood very well, I do add a little water to loosen it up a bit so it spreads easyer.