H's TL-1Q, first build.

[Dedman]

that is going to look great when the clear coats go on

[Andy40]

God that quilt looks great. Love the colour choice H

[wokkaboy]

thats looking very tasty H, good work. Lovely shade of red

[wazkelly]

Echo all of the above comments and the stubborn glue spots seem to have faded almost into the quilt pattern perhaps? Maybe add a bit more just to those 2 spots on the next stain application, ie. after doing all over coat go back and to a few more spot touches. Don't think much else will work without stripping too much finish and possibly veneer off the top.

[UpperCaseH]

Thanks everyone! I hope the colour deepens/darkens a little bit more as the third stain and intensifiers go on, but I'd be pretty happy even if it didn't.

Waz, you're right, from most angle the spots almost look like part of the quilting. I did touch them up after doing the all over coat and I'll do it again on the final stain coat, but from a very shallow angle (with my eye almost level with the edge of the body) they still stand out to me. I'm trying not to worry too much - with hand made stuff it seems like the maker can always see every little thing wrong with it.

[Andy40]

H, you are correct, the colour will deepen until you hit about 4 stain coats. Subsequent stain coats may deepen the colour after that but not as much. The inensifying coats will then deepen the colours further. Once you've done about 4 stain coats and at least 3 intensifiers, you'll be hitting the max colour.

[wazkelly]

Know what you mean about slight imperfections as on some of mine there are a few hidden secrets that only I know about and suspect nobody would readily spot. Even if they do that is all part of the hand built thing.....it is a one off and once you start playing it you are bound to get dings and marks on it eventually. They are meant to be played not locked away in a case or permanently hung up on a wall.

[UpperCaseH]

Rubbed the neck (with 2 stain coats cured) down with 0000 steel wool, brushed it real well, and applied the first coat of DT final neck coat. Looks OK at the moment, I'll be interested to see how it dries since at the moment it's very glossy.

I needed way less than I thought. I poured what I thought was a tiny amount out, loaded up the cloth, squeezed it out again (so maybe a quarter of what I poured was on the cloth), then applied it without needing to load the cloth up again. Needs a warning on the bottle. Something like "You need much less of this than you think. Half what you think, then half of that".

Does anyone know where I could buy waterslide decal paper for a laser printer? One place wants something like $12 per sheet and it seems like a lot. Also, how do you guys clear coat over decals? On a model plane or truck or whatever I'd do a gloss clear coat, then decal, then gloss clear 2 or 3 more times to hide the edges, then matte clear if it wasn't supposed to shine, but since I'm not doing a real "gloss" coat and not transitioning to matte, I'm not really sure how to proceed once the decal's on. Just go with the DT final stuff over the top? Is there a max number of coats I can do with that?

[wokkaboy]

sounds good H, the maple necks don't take much final coat as you worked out.

[stan]

stunning red, nice work