Rudder | Final Coat of Gloss

I found time to work on the rudder between other more urgent activities.

It wasn't time critical that the rudder be progressed, but I found it annoying that it had been sitting around for ages waiting for its final coat of gloss paint and I hadn't done anything.

So when I had time to spare I prepared for the next (and hopefully final) coat of paint.

First I taped the rudder up for its sixth coat of blue gloss. I used 3M 218 Fine Line masking tape to mask off the critical join between white and blue gloss, and 3M 244 to cover up the adjoining white paint. Like this.

This time I made doubly sure to properly burnish the edges of the 218 tape before applying paint, to prevent bleeding. I have shown a tea spoon in the pic which works quite well, but a thumbnail is just as effective and is easier to use.

Here is the rudder, ready for paint.

And here it is after its sixth coat of blue gloss.

I added 5% thinners, as usual, and used a 1 1/2" brush which worked well.

I pulled the tape and left the rudder to cure, like this.

That looked good. Next came the final coat of white.

Here we are taped up for white gloss, in exactly the same way.

I burnished the edges thoroughly with the spoon and a thumbnail, and carefully applied the paint with 5% thinners and 1 1/2" brush. It went well, and this is how it looked.

I stuck this Post It note to the rudder so I wouldn't forget to burnish the tape, as happened with the fifth coat and hence the resultant bleeding.

This is the final result, with tape pulled.

No bleeding, and a decent finish to the white gloss. Looking good!

That's the rudder finished, and another tick off the list.