I've made quite a bit of progress on the fibreglas in the last few days. Depending on how you count them, there are around 25 to 27 fibreglas parts on the RV-8. Starting this week, I had eight of them finished (empennage tips and empennage fairing), and I was working on another 13 parts (canopy skirt, upper and lower cowling, oil filler door, front and rear wheel pants halves for each side, gear leg fairings, spinner and wing tips.
The canopy skirt really came together over the weekend. I took Friday afternoon off, and got another round of sand and prime done. Once the primer went on I could see that I finally had the contours right, and that there were just a few minor rough spots to sort out. So one more minor round of fill, sand and prime, and it was ready of the silver paint this afternoon. It isn't perfect - there are still a few rough areas to sort out when it gets the real paint job someday, but it is more than good enough for now. I still have to run a small bead of sealant along the top edge of the canopy skirt.
I thought the upper and lower cowling were ready for the silver paint, but I can see that a few rivet heads can still be discerned under the primer, so I've got some more sanding and filling to do.
I haven't accomplished much this summer except fibreglas work. I need to get this aircraft flying, so I've decided that I won't shoot for perfection on every fibreglas part. I decided to focus on the parts that will be difficult or impossible to remove from the aircraft, as any future work on those parts would have to occur in the hangar. Parts that can be removed (e.g. cowling, wheel pants, etc) can be easily brought home to work on, even after the aircraft is flying. So, now that the canopy skirt is painted, I probably won't do any more significant fibreglas work except for the wing tips until after first flight.
I've got a lot of travel in the next two months, starting this week, so progress will pretty much stop until December or January.