After my first few jobs, I quit using the gun. I use the iron without a sock for everything. It takes time and you have to keep shifting to stay in the right light so you can watch the film darken under the heat, but it does a really nice job. It's one of the things I've found I'm really good at. But I only cover ribbed wings and small solid surfaces like the stab. I might find I need the gun if I worked on other things like large solids, I'm not sure.