Finished the first section of the fuselage (FWD MID FUSE BULKHEADS).
There were a lot of difficult rivers for this seemingly short section. I ended up using the offset rivet set for most of the rivers at the end but even with that I needed to push the cover ribs off to the side while setting the rivets.
I also needed to use a 90 degree drill to set the screw at the end. Already I am beginning to see the difficulties that come with this more advanced kit.
I switched to SEM self-etching primer for these parts. I still have some epoxy primer left from the last kit but I plan to use that only on the skins now. The SEM primer does a decent job, is quick and easy and is very fast. So it's probably the way I would go from the start if I did the entire project over again. The only thing I do not like about the self-etching ‘rattle cans' primer is the quality. It comes off easily even with the cleco's. That said, touch up is simple and easy so I think I will continue with the SEM rattle cans.
One last thing. I also got several bags with tons of AN bolts that were very similar in size. I did not separate them on the inventory, perhaps I should have. It was quite a boring job measuring them all out. I ended up spending 4 hours putting my hardware into the appropriate slots. I found that Van's did make some mistakes on some of the washers and miscellaneous parts. For example a K1000-06 nut plate is NOT the same as a K1000-6 nut plate. Something that they are very good at fixing when you let them know, however. Just give them a call or email and they send you the right hardware, even months after the kit arrives ☺�
On to section 26!