I use these (Spatula Set, 4pc's) to help lay down the filler (Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Filler) into the seams of the nose cone and start forming the basic shape I want.
If you haven't already, sand the nose cone before using filler, this gives the filler (and later on, paint) a surface to grab on to. Any mold release left from the original molding process must be removed.
If you've ever glued nose weight into a nose cone, only to have it come loose later, (I'm going to assume you didn't use wood glue) it's because the mold release wasn't removed or wasn't removed good enough. Same thing will happen to materials apply'd to the outside of the nose cone.
To see the spatula set, (their the same size as dental tools) go to
www.hobbylinc.com , select the hand tools box, then enter product number squ10705 into the search box. Their not a "gotta have" tool, but they do make them selfs handi.
It looks like there's a large amount of filler on the nose cone. There really isn't. It's only built up a very small amount, but feathered way out to cover the flat spots. Yeah, that much. Look at pictures two and three, read the numbers on the scales display. After being sanded to the desired shape, the filler has added 2 grams of weight, TWO GRAMS. That's BOTH sides.
Having a variety of sanding blocks at your disposal is a real plus. Use smaller "body tube" sanding blocks (see page 2, post #51 for a "how to") as your working up to the tip of the nose cone. Enlarge picture four to see the contents better.
You'd think by slathering a healthy layer of the filler on and then sanding it down to the wanted shape would work just fine. I use to think so too. Now I know we both would be wrong. Ask me how I know that.
It's much better to cover the area with a small amount of filler at a time. Sand that down, see where more is needed, apply... sand that down... see where more is needed, apply... sand that down... I thinking you can see the pattern developing here. Keep going until you achive the shape you want. A hand held blow dryer will decrease filler drying time enormously.
I soaked thin CA into the wood filler (I recommend you do this outside, whew..ee). This was done by dipping a Q-tip into the bottle of CA and using it like a paint brush. You could use a real paint brush, but you won't get very far before the bristles become rock like. Ask me how I know that. The Q-tip method works much better.
Why am I performing what seems to be a completly unnessasary task?
Because the wood filler has no strength of its own. If it were to be twisted, pushed or pulled it would fracture. Fractures cause crumbling, and crumbling leads to dust. The coat of CA soaked into the wood filler lends it strength and stops all that. The nose cone filler will not soak up a bunch of primer on its first application.
These reasons pretty much much push the coat of CA task into the nessasary zone for me. It works for me, if it doesn't work for you, skip it.
Lightly sand the CA coated filler smooth, 320 grit sand paper will work fine.
Remember that your at the start of the finishing process right now. Any flaw you can see now, your really going to see after primer is spray'd on. Repair all blemishes between coats of paint as you find them. Do this between every coat of paint and the final paint will be killer. If your thinking the paint will cover all them little flaws, you would be mistaken. It will magnifiy them. Paint, repair and sand...repeat...paint, repair and sand... repeat....
All this sounds like alot when your reading it (even more so when your writting it). But when your actully doing it, it's not alot.