The rudder skins ready for priming (just to take the stiffeners). You can clearly see the dull parts of the surface which is where it has been prepped with scotchbrite. The glossy parts are still original alclad coating. This will only be prepped once the whole assembly will be painted.

For priming and spot painting we use this touchup HVLP spray gun, about $40-something from Harbour Freight... A buddy brought it along when he returned from a quick business trip to the states. Does an excellent job so far!

As a support for buildup and priming we bought a couple of styrofoam blocks, simply laid on 2 sawhorses... Excellent and cheap space with a lot of flexibility. Alex the primerman is mounting the stiffeners on the styrofoam with small nails, stuck through the rivet holes. Otherwise the stiffeners, which are pretty light would be blown around by the air from the spray gun.

In the meantime, Bernie started to bevel the counterweight skin... The plans call for this since the relatively thin rudder skin will overlap in that area and this avoids visible contours / local stresses on the skins.

The rudder skeleton already taking shape.

Skins and stiffeners completely primed...

...next up will be backriveting them together.