Another milestone in the books, the Vertical Stabilizer is now done. After doing the HS, the VS seemed pretty easy and straightforward in comparison. Not only did I finish the VS, but got started on the Rudder also so I could prime as many parts as possible at one time...I will talk more about that in the next post. Thoughts/observations so far....Primer: the HS parts really came out kinda ugly. I kept telling myself that it just has to be functional not necessarily look good, but gosh did it bother me that it looked so bad. Well, fast forward to priming the VS and rudder stiffeners. What a difference!! It wasnt marginally better, it was like night and day how much better these parts came out. It all came down to adjusting the spray settings on the gun properly...which I figured out by reading the owners manual in a little more detail and playing around with it before shooting parts. I would have never thought something as simple as this would make such a difference but it sure did. I was very happy with the appearance of this round of parts as you can see from the pics.
Riveting: I am certainly getting better at this. No dings in the skin for the VS. Tricks to better riveting: slow down & set the gun pressure properly for the rivet being used....and get good at drilling out rivets!! haha! All in all, the VS came out looking pretty good. As a side note, regarding the ding in the HS: Spruce actually has filler that is specifically design to fill dents in aluminum aircraft skins!! I was happy to see that, I figured I could fix it, but to know that there is a specific product designed exactly for this purpose sure put my mind at ease. I will definitely try not to do it again, but it is nice to know I have the option if needed.
The VS cleco-ed together before match drilling all holes in the spars, ribs and skin.
My countersunk holes on my Spar Doubler. It has been gone over with a scotchbrite pad so that the primer will adhere better, which is what causes scuffed up appearance.
These are the dimples that will fit into the above countersunk holes. Doesnt that look cool!
And here is the two of them shown together. They will lay back to back in the finished assembly.
My DRDT-2 dimpling the VS skin. Bob Markert showed me how to adjust this tool properly, as I was using it improperly before, and now it works much better.
Here are the VS parts after priming, see how much better they look this time around. I always like to say, "if it was easy it wouldnt be any fun!" Well, I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that after struggling with this the first time around and being very frustrated, I learned something in the process and it came out much better this time. That brought a smile to my face, very rewarding.
The rear spar after priming and riveting is complete.
All of these rivets were set with the pneumatic squeezer. I am really enjoying the view of a nice consistent row of rivets now.
Pop rivets used to fasten the rib. This is the only way to get to these particular holes, since solid rivets couldnt be bucked inside the now closed up assembly.
This is the 0.625" diameter hole I added to the top rib for my future VS camera. This is where I will route wires down through the VS into the fuselage later in the project.
And there ya go, sub assembly #2 of N531RD finished!!! Crankin' along! As you can see...the blue protective film has been removed. I have officially changed my stance on this. Most builders leave it on except to remove a strip where rivets go. I found this kind of a pain do to and a little time consuming. After thinking about it, and reading posts about it on VAF, I am convinced it isnt needed. I am not doing a polished plane, so paint will definitely be applied at a later date. The paint process starts by taking a sander to 'scuff' up all surfaces that are going to be painted for better paint adhesion. Well, what is the point of keeping the surface scratch free now only to watch the painter do it later!!?? Waste of time, in my opinion. 
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