Finishing the area behind B3

Last night, I painted the 3rd coat of epoxy on the area behind bulkhead 3 and in the water ballast well. I tinted the epoxy with white pigment to make sure that I got all areas covered.
I think it turned out well.

tinted epoxy

Then I dry fit the hatches back on drilled pilot holes for the hold down screws. Both for the upright hatches on B3 and for the ones on the sole behind B3.

Hatches in place

Hatches in place

Then i used a 1/4" bit to drill the holes out. I filled them with epoxy thickened with wood flour (that was actually my filleting mix for the last few weeks). From a discussion with Howard, you shouldn't use silica for this, it gets too brittle. And you shouldn't use microballoons because they are too weak.
Wood flour has good strength properties and gives the screw threads something to bite.

Tape over the filled holes

closeup of tape

This is the sole.

I mixed up some 410 fairing compound and rolled that on the rudder top. I'll sand that tomorrow and prime the rudder top and the rudder foil.

A quick note, I really liked the microballons from TAP plastic much better than the 410 fairing compound from West Systems. It mixes in a whole lot better and looks consistent. I'll see tomorrow how well the 410 sands. Supposedly it's great to sand.