This nose bowl was badly dented so I went to work smoothing it out with a slapper. I wanted it nice because the shiny new paint would easily show any dents. This was a test fitting before the final round of slapping, etching, and priming. 

I used an orbital sander for the flat sections, being very careful not to sand into the fabric. Most of the bumps and bends I smoothed out the old fashioned way, fingers and sandpaper. It's only been three weeks since I finished and my fingertips already have some feeling in them again. I knew that a good respirator, goggles, and ear plugs were needed to keep the paint dust (mostly) on my outsides. I still sneezed in shades of blue for a couple weeks. Yuck.

The cowling and control surfaces were painted white separately so that the junctions would be easy to spray. Most of them were put back on the plane before spraying the blue coats.