I was sitting here sanding and trying to think of an excuse to stop and this question popped into my head. This refers to any body tube and nosecone combination where the cone is permanently attached such as pods on a Centuri Taurus or Orion. I don't reckon there's a poll feature enabled here so I'll just ask straight up.

Do you prefer to glue nosecones in tubes and finish the whole thing as one unit, then mask and paint, or do you finish and paint the tube and nosecone separately then glue nosecones in?

The easy way is to paint them separately, but it leaves a big seam. The harder way is to finish together, then mask and paint. This eliminates the big seam and makes the pod look like a one-piece spun aluminum or composite tank.

I've done it both ways in the past, so I was just wondering if you guys deem it worthy of the extra effort to eliminate the seam. Ok....In reality, I was just procrastinating on this dadgum sanding.

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I love sanding.