“Oh no, now I have.” He has just applied a lot of paint and has created huge drops of paint falling on the once perfect model of him. That perfect result of winning the contest that you expected is now a disaster.

All is not lost, however. You can fix just about any painting mistake you’ve made on your contest model with just a little work. With careful paint sanding technique, a perfect finish can be created.

Using kiln techniques; Stand up painting, re-spraying, polishing and waxing, you can correct any mistake you make. I’ll show you how to use these techniques to fix your model and bring it back to competition level.

Permanent painting is the first technique we will use to correct an overspray or orange peel situation you have created on your model. Orange peel is just extra paint that is applied thickly and ends up making the surface of your model look like the outside of an orange. The easiest technique I have found to correct this type of situation is to simply use sandpaper to remove any excess paint. The hardest part of doing this is not dwelling on the details that stick out from the surface of your model.

There are many different grades or grits of sandpaper. I basically classify sandpaper into two types, rough and fine. Rough sandpaper comes in grit numbers from 100 to 1,000. The lower the number, the coarser it is. For heavy paint removal, I typically use 320 grit. Fine sandpaper ranges from 2,000 to 12,000 grit. This fine grit is a secret to achieving a perfect finish.

Sandpaper comes with different types of backing. I prefer the cloth backing over the cheaper paper backing because I generally just use a wet sanding technique. Wet sanding is where you use water to help lubricate the surface of the model and it generally works best for my model paints.

Your first task is to let your paint bug dry completely. He then begins removing the uneven paint with a coarse sandpaper, being very careful not to sand any plastic details off his model. I will cut the sandpaper into very small pieces and clip or glue them to wooden “tools” to get into small places. I’ll also use paint thinner to smooth out paint buildup around detailed areas, keeping in mind that you don’t want to ruin the plastic.

Once this is done, spray paint the damaged area again.

Continue this sanding and spraying process until you are satisfied with the finish. At this stage, you are ready to finely sand the paint.

Fine sanding is really the real secret to a perfect paint finish. I work the paint finish by sanding the paint using these grits in order.

2400

3200

4000

6000

8000

12000

The sandpaper I like to use is sandwiched between foam so it conforms to the surface of the model more easily. Each step uses the wet sanding technique with water. Change your sanding strokes in different directions and try not to use a lot of pressure. At the end of this paint sanding sequence, the surface of your model should be very even and smooth. This will take us to the next step which is polishing the paint.

Paint enamel is the next secret to achieving a near perfect paint finish for your contest winning model. I prefer Novus plastic paint enamel. I work the paint to a fine mirror finish using No. 3, No. 2, and then No. 1 in sequence. This prepares you for the final step, which is wax protection.

Wax protection is the final step to create your contest and end up winning the model.

I use Meguiar’s Mirror Glaze #26 High Tech Professional Yellow Wax. You can find it at any auto parts store. I apply it with a soft cloth and it buffs the paint to a showroom finish.

Well, there you have it. It’s a lot of work but well worth the effort. In the end, she fixed her pain problem and got a model that has a full showroom and a contest winning finish.