Jim,
Sand the bare wood with 320 paper. About 4 coats of clear dope on the bare wood. Sand every other coat with 320 paper. While not necessary, then cover with carbon veil. 2 or 3 more coats of clear then sand with 320. The veil does two things. 1) It helps prevent the sheeting edge sheeting from sagging between the ribs as the airplane ages 2) It prevents the wood grain from showing after the airplanes ages.
Now apply the silkspan, silk or polyspan. Yes, I use polyspan. Then about 4 coats of clear, again sanding every other coat with 320. paper.
It is then ready for primer of your choice. This airplane has the NAPA 540 primer that Bob Storick uses. It is compatible under and over dope, and the auto finishes can be used with it. The old dope mixed with talc will also work as primer. The choice is yours.
This is the basic procedure for finishing any stunter. As always, the key is the sanding for both the finish and weight control. You always remove more than you put on.
After this then apply your colors, decals, ink lines and any other details. Then clear dope or auto clear coat. From here on go to finer and finer paper, 400, 600, 1000 etc. The more work you put in, the better the results.
See Sparky's (Bob Storick) finishing method. He is probably the best at applying a great finish in a minimum of time. There are many finishing variations that have presented on this forum. , but you cannot escape getting sore fingers from sanding. There are no secrets, it remains as to how far you want to go with it.