Well, it was a fun long weekend. I got the Gee Bee out to fly and had some good laughs with the guys at the field. Good family time including science experiments... you do not want to know what CLR does to raw eggs.
Moving on...
I got the battery hatch mostly wrapped up. There was some additional blending work that had to be done. Nothing the light weight spackle could not handle. I still need to insert the printed bolt heads on the other side but you get the idea of what is going on here.
The next step is to mask off the motor (spinners and props have been removed), the control surfaces, and check for areas around the cockpit where the tape has pulled off so that I am fully prepped to start applying some primer.
Lots of checking for rough areas ahead and sanding back and re-checking. Once that is done I'll do some additional masking for panel lines. I've extensively looked over reference pictures and the construction uses overlapped panels as opposed to butt-jointed panels. The technique for these kinds of lines are similar using primer. For butt-joints I use 1/64 Chart-pak tape and apply the primer then, sand back and remove the tape and it leaves a small groove that simulates a panel line. With overlap panels, you apply masking tape and spray the primer on just one side so there is a lip. It is much more subtle of a line.
From there, flush rivets all around and then I can start applying blue.