Thank you! Now that I think about it I do have Tamiya polishing compound I may try. Will try on blemish and if it goes well can expand to all over. Need to ensure I remove excess from panel lines.
Holy tiny rivets. Do I place over the black gloss or put an initial layer of metallic down first?
This part isn’t fun simply because they have a black border that needs slicing off that is basically touching the rivets.
Also not great gloss finish on this piece but it’s underside so I’m not going to sweat it.
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Looking good!
How do I fix these? The bigger one was me polishing I took off the primer but while I thought it was smooth it looks like a small divot. The other is a raised bump. Can I perfect plastic putty the divot and sand, reprise, repaint being careful to keep it to a small area? It’s not super noticeable but I’m bummed. Yet don’t want to make things worse trying to fix it.
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You might try masking off the area around the affected panel - feather the raised edge of the divot and repaint entire panel . If you are using acrylic paint you can strip down to bare plastic with denatured alcohol on a Q tip .
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Do you recommend any filler? Worry that just sanding may make the area of need bigger
I would re do entire panel starting from scratch.
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I think I need to take the chance. Other seams visible that are more prominent. Considering super glue as gap filler which I’ve never done before. I guess the perfect plastic putty before priming didn’t do as much as it seemed.
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Man I go 6 weeks between posts and this weekend I’m going gangbusters. First attempt at getting ready to fix blemish:
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Steve, I’m so impressed with your Tamiya P-38J build, I want to pull the trigger on one myself.
Keep up the good work 
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It honestly falls together and requires next to no cleanup, unless you bungle the paint job like I’m working on lol.
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Enjoy this series of pictures, which went from disappointment, to panic, to acceptance, to resolve. It just didn’t sit right to not look right. And I flooded way too much paint ok attempting to fix so I went nuclear.
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Ok I think I’ve cleared the area as much as I can. Minimal spots of paint came off due to masking. Please tell me I can put GX-2 over and smooth and not have to redo those whole panels too? I fear it’ll be a vicious cycle of stripping paint and peeling a new panel.
Will spray more GX-2 in prep to redo Metal.
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Question: can I use super glue on these seams that don’t exist on the real aircraft, sand smooth and use GX-2 and metal over without having to redo the panel all the way? The step blemish that existed before was because I didn’t re apply primer. So I’m hopeful to correct these without being too precise. Thanks!
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My god was fixing that blemish not worth it. Very slight orange peel but overall very happy considering there were moments I was worried I couldn’t save it. Tamiya finishing compound next I think. Once I confirm this method works I’ll try my hands at the seams on the booms. Luckily they are smaller panels to fix and I now have lots of experience with my trial by fire.
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Should have listened to you but as this is my second ever natural metal and the first one I made no repair attempts, I didn’t realize that no matter what any steps in the paint would be visible unless it’s at a panel line! Wow that was a ton of work. Thank you anyways though!
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Why not leave the seams on the booms ? Most will never know they are inaccurate.
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So true! Once I finish my current repair job I will assess and decide. It’s one of those “it’ll bug me” but I have to be honest with myself too as this is only my second ever NMF paint job. Looking forward to being able to shift to gloss coating, decals, rivets, other at this point lol.
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I fully know that the underside panels shown are not as silky smooth as they should be, the top is definitely better. That being said, I should gloss coat the whole model before attempting rivet decals right? I’ve seen lots of folks say no need of surface is smooth enough, but gloss coat is extra insurance right?
Plan to use alclad aqua gloss! Need to look up best methods.
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