Beveling Fins
Epoxy
Fillets
Internal Fillets
Masking Nose Cones
Miscellaneous
Paint
Painting Stand
Visual Fin Alignment
Why Use Wax?
Things That Didn't Work

If you want to make a chicken, you've got to lay a few eggs.

This is my mistakes department, things that seemed like a good idea, that just didn't work out right.

Alcohol to clean between coats of paint.
Dissolves many paints, Krylon and Rust-Oleum. Dupli-Color seems more resistant. A scotch brite pad soaked in alcohol is a great way to strip paint away.

Windex to clean between coats of paint.
Went unnoticed in the thick metallic paints. Caused a unique style of crazing, with the Rust-Oleum clear coat. Essentially, it was streaking as a result of some residue left on the rocket. If you feel compelled to try this, be sure to remove all of the Windex.

Polyurethane clear coat over Dupli-Color.
Looked absolutely great going on, but there was no chemical bond between the two paints. It was like having a plastic bag vacuum sealed around the rocket. When the clear coat got punctured it started to blister and peal like a bad car paint job. Oddly, my PML Io is sporting it on just the nose cone and it's holding up great.

Plastic bags (grocery sacks) for masking.
Repeated disasters. Paint found its way through tiny unnoticed holes and bonded between the previous coat of paint and the plastic bag. Sometimes condensation builds up on the other side of the bag and causes light bonding between the bag and the paint. What works for me? Typing paper covered with aluminum foil. The typing paper is gentle and dry. The aluminum foil is very protective and stays in place.

Working with epoxy, over carpet without a drop cloth.
Need I say more?