On the day the A380 took to the skies, it's a primer session for Alex... Elevator skins ready to prime. You can clearly see the scotchbrited areas along the stiffener rivet lines...

...while Bernie built up the elevator understructures.

As with pretty much everything so far, holes matched up perfectly :-) It's a huge pleasure to be able to work with such a beautifully designed kit.

There are 2 holes to drill through each of the E-714 elevator counterbalance weights. Because lead is so soft and the drill will get stuck easily, one needs to use some form of drill lubrication. On the picture you can see the plastic cup which contains "boelube", a lubricant designed by Boeing. It's not greasy at all, rather powderish. Drilled out the holes in 2 steps. First to #19 and then to #12 final size. Used our Bosch cordless drill, set to very slow speed.

Priming completed...

once the primer has dried, the parts can be back-riveted together.

Both understructures built up and matchdrilled.