One of the activities that must be completed before the airframe can be painted is filling the rivets. After scouring the internet I found a video by Alan Radford who demonstrated the method to fill the rivets using SuperFil. I decided to use the same method and sourced the filler from Aircraft Coverings. I spoke to Alex there who despatched it straight away and I received it a day or so later.
Karen using a syringe and SuperFil to fill each rivet 
It’s a long job 
The filled rivets ready to be sanded
It was very slow going and very hard to squeeze the SuperFil out of the 16g needle. Consulting with Tony Palmer he suggested that we give up on SuperFil as it was just too thick due to the temperature we were working at which was sub 10c. He suggested that we use a resin, mixed with a 1% slow acting hardener which was mixed with talcum powder to give it a thicker consitency. He demonstrated how to mix and fill the resin and we then tried using the new filler. It was an instant success with much quicker progress made.
Some resin and some SuperFil 
One by one the rivets were gradually filled. 
It was quite chilly! 
The slightly proud fills of each rivet which would be sanded down before painting. 
It took 3 days to completely fill the rivets.
The next step was to sand down the tops of the resin in preparation for spraying. Using a very fine grit with an orbital air sander made the process very straightforward although it took a day to complete.
I used the air orbital sander to finish off. 
Karen used the electric orbital sander just to take the sharp point off the top of the rivets. 
A crawler board was invaluable. 
and then Karen inspected my work to make sure I didn’t miss any. 
Job done! 
and then the cowls 
With all the wings, tailplane and cowls in the van the Fuselage will be loaded onto a trailer for it’s journey to the paint shop.
G-MLSY 