My plane between the sticky one and the one I'm doing now is all Rustoleum paint with auto clear on top. I read Ken Culbertson's tips and also Charles's pointers he's posted and it is sooooo much easier, I may go back to that method, but at the moment, I still don't have a process I'm satisfied with other than a couple of my ultracote planes turned out very nice (by my standard). But they were 100% ultracote.
I'm trying dope again, possibly just because I bought nearly $200 of the stuff from Aircraft Spruce. Whoops. My rustoleum job was about $25 plus clear.
And, the white was terrible. I've never painted straight white. So many coats to get it to look white. Well, I'm committed now.