Fuselage stained and first coat of poly!

After trying about 50 different combinations of stain/poly/thinner I finally settled on a darker color for the fuselage.  The light yellow color of most of the natural-wood planes was too difficult for me to replicate in balsa, so I went with a darker reddish color as portrayed in the picture below of Albatross D.Va 7177.17 - Cpl. A. Bartkowiak's plane.

I found that Minwax Red Mahogany replicated this color fairly well.  After applying a wood conditioner and staining the fuselage, I found the result to be a bit more splotchy than I had hoped, but it looks really good regardless!  I also had to go over all the spots where CA had been applied with a brown sharpie because the CA apparently seals the wood and doesn't allow the stain to penetrate (leaving very light patches).

Below is a picture of the fuselage after the first coat of polyurethane tonight:

I have the fuselage set up in a rotating drying rig (powered by some old Lego gears and a motor) to keep the poly from pooling on any one side.  Close up of the rotating mechanism below:

  

I plan to put on three coats of the poly with sanding in between, and will do the cutouts for the cockpit and motor prior to the last coat.  

And a very exciting video of paint drying:  (I know, it's not paint, but close enough).  Maybe next time I'll post a video of grass growing ;)