In all, this is a pretty basic layup, and it went by a lot faster than I expected. I incorporated my changes from the flat layup. This time, I stippled with a brush to remove all visible bubbles, even the tiny ones present in the epoxy due to mixing. I also incorporated a trick suggested by several other builders, that you not only use plastic underneath the layup to protect the bench, but also on top of the peel ply. The plastic allows you to perform a final squeegee step to remove epoxy and air bubbles and prevents air from being reintroduced. This worked very well... for the top surface. Well, you can see the results. The 4mil plastic is actually not all that malleable in terms of compound corners, which this layup contains. I discovered the hard way that it was difficult to bend around the edges without it pulling the top surface off the foam block, or lifting the peel ply right off the layup.
This caused all sorts of problems. First, by picking the peel ply up it created a peel ply air pocket. That's not a big deal because the peel ply doesn't stay there, but it DOES mean there is an area where peel ply didn't touch the layup, so I would have to sand this spot and I would also expect extra epoxy buildup here. This area is circled in red.
More important, I found it very difficult to actually do the squeegee work in the lower portions, under the complex bends. Because of this I ended up with much more epoxy on the top of the peel ply than should be there, and it became impossible to remove - epoxy doesn't stick TO peel ply, but a 0.5mm sheet of it on top of the peel ply with fingers down through the mesh sure HOLDS it there. I'd have to sand the excess epoxy down, then sand the peel ply off to be sure it was fully removed before doing another layup.
In all, I think I will leave this trick to flat layups or areas where there are gentle curves and great benefit to be had, like on the wing surfaces. Nonetheless, the layup was a success - it's epoxy rich and ugly as hell, but it easily held my weihght, and I don't think I really need to practice sanding - I'm moving on.
During the layup I was also reminded of a complaint I forgot in all the fuss in the flat layup - loose fabric strands. These get all OVER the place if you let them get onto your brush, gloves, or squeegee. I think in the future I willl simply take the hit and add an inch or two to each cut to keep these away from the areas I'm working in during the layup. I could do a temporary selvedge with masking tape or similar, but because the BID is so malleable, I keep having problems with my 4" cuts becoming 3" strips, even when I roll the fabric; cutting things oversized will prevent problems there in the future as well.