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Masking for the red areas was completed and the first tack coat of red was shot.

 

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Next up the paint shop spent the day masking for the red areas of the design. Lots of taping was required because all the red areas are lined with a black pin stripe.

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The paint shop finished applying the stencils and began painting the black areas of the design.

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Evoke cut a set of full size vinyl stencils from the CAD files that Kracon will use for masking the paint. Evoke shipped 2 large rolls of vinyl with the stencils nested on the sheets. The various parts of the design had to be identified and separated from the rolls and then carefully laid out on the airplane. It's tricky to get them aligned top to bottom and left to right. The nice thing about using vinyl stencils is that all the curves and lettering come out perfect. You can sight along the curves and not see any waves or wobbles. The painters weren't sure if the stencils actually saved any time vs tape layout, but the results are very smooth. And there were still areas that had to be laid out using tape, such as the leading edges and the top and bottom of the fuselage.

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The paint shop applied the base white and pearlescent coats to the airplane yesterday. The paint will have to cure for a day before they can start masking for the colors.

 

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Over the last couple days the paint shop acid etched and alodined the airframe. Then they applied an epoxy primer.

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All the fiberglass parts were sanded and any remaining pinholes were filled. The honeycomb sandwich pattern is no longer visible.

Kracon also touched up the fiberglass flying surface tips and did some minor body work to smooth out the various hanger rash dings and dents the airframe had accumulated. They use a high tech aerospace lightweight filling compound that binds well to aluminum and is compatible with aircraft paint systems.

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I had filled pin holes and primed the fiberglass parts that didn't come with gel coat prior to delivering the airplane to the paint shop. The engine cowling was gel coated, but the honeycomb sandwich material was showing through. The Kracon crew primed and block sanded all the fiberglass parts for a good final finish.

Here are the parts with a heavy primer and black guide coat prior to sanding.

Kracon wrapped up the engine compartment and washed all the aluminum prior to acid etching and priming.