I'll be bonding hulls-to-decks next couple days, then should be ready to mess with the final epoxy coats. Had 3 fill coats (plus seal & wet-out) on the hulls. Today, with the help of my new ROS (thank you very much Etienne) I buffed those fill coats down to the smoothness babies butt. If I can manage some smooth layers of epoxy, should be smooth-as-glass, and I'd be happy. Concern is I can't seem to spread my epoxy (MAS resin w/ slow hardener) thin enough that it won't develop runs. Can go back an hour after applying and 'tip' any runs smooth, but seems I'll go back another hour later and there will be more runs, and now they've started to set. I'll do more damage than good trying to smooth them out. I've applied varnish to many-a-thing that weren't flat in my lifetime, usually with decent results. Doesn't seem like this should be so tough!

Ended up taking off a good portion of those original fill coats (stayed out of the glass!) just to get something smooth. Prefer not to do that again. Both time consuming and expensive. Was hoping to apply remaining coats with the little 4" trim roller, but this doesn't seem to allow for a very thin coat. Realize I'll likely still need to do some sanding between coats, but I'd like to have better (smoother, w/ fewer runs) results with these finish coats than I did with the fills. Anyone know any tricks they might pass on? Might I have better luck w/ a faster hardener? Any advice will be appreciated.

Todd