Gotta say, I'm not a fan of Kinetix R118, it's awful epoxy. Works well as an infusion resin, but it's properties are pretty poor and it's clarity is sub-par. It's also got horrific UV resistance. For the price you pay, ATL can keep it. 

Not always easy to do consistently, but I've found that if you mist it from a sistance of 30cm's or so onto the fabric and leave it to settle for a little while prior to placement it doesn't leave any visible surface marks. You don't need much of it on there

I personally use Araldite LY 3600, but I purchase it locally so I'm not sure where you can find it over East. If you can find it, it exceeds the R118 in every department, including being $30 cheaper for a 4kg kit. 

It does work well for infusion, I use it for everything. It has a mix viscosity of 300-400cps at 25 degrees, so it is a touch slower than the 200cps R118. This only really becomes an issue if you are doing a large part using an internal flow media like Soric, and you don't want to help flow with external mesh. But I have infused a 2.7sqm bonnet using only Soric, and that infused fully in about 40 minutes, so still no where near your pot life. If it does become an issue, just mix smaller batches and refill the pot a few times.