ok - without restarting the great primer debate, i'll just go ahead and say that i use Akzo 2 part epoxy, with Alodine underneath, and it seems to work fine. as for the skins, i just scuff em, clean em, and shoot them with primer.

so here goes!! the lame-ass goofy face i've got on is on behalf of the very first rivet of the airplane squeezed. super yay. somehow, it's kind of hard to believe that this will fly around some day. it doesn't look very aerodynamic so far. hehe.

So - I'm going to say this over and over again, and loudly. To anyone who will stand still long enough to listen. hey you! if you're going to build an airplane, spend the cash and get a pneumatic rivet squeezer. I got mine from Avery, and i got a couple different yokes. totally necessary. i got a 4" no hole thin nose yoke, a longeron yoke, and a couple others. it just makes such a nice rivet, especially if you're new to the whole riveting thing.

As much as i love squeezing rivets, so far i hate shooting rivets. my first experience with it is the leading edge of the Vertical Stab, and i suck at it. Here's when i start to doubt whether we can actually build an airplane. Boy, drilling out bad rivets is lame. and i feel so lame doing it. Of course, i didn't practice riveting. I just went for it. Woohoo. it's fun to boldly go forth when everything works, but it sucks to boldy blow it. dammit. oh well, even though this was a dark time, we pressed on, and finally got the hang of it.