Apogee SR-72 Darkbird Build Part 8, Paint Problems

I thought I would save some glider weight by not doing a filler primer coat after the CWF was sanded down.

Carpenter's Wood Filler does not seal the balsa wood.
After the first light gloss black was sprayed I was left with a blotchy surface. Even though most all of the Duplicolor Filler/Primer is usually sanded off before color paint is sprayed, it still seals the wood and allows for a smoother paint coat.

The other weird thing was the drying time. The paint on the wood surfaces dried as normal, but the body tubes took four days to dry! Central Florida weather has been mild this week with very low humidity. The paint was a gloss black Rustoleum enamel.

I did some dry sanding to even up the surface.
On the right I used a wide point permanent marker at all the root edges. Sometimes it's hard to get spray paint into the inside edges. I didn't want to add any more paint weight than I have to.

With the surfaces not being as smooth as I would have liked, I switched over to flat black paint. Flat paint can help hide a rough build. Gloss paint shows everything!

The back end of the engine pod got some black from a wide point marker.