Scrape & Polish

If you have the model stripped of all paint, it should be a relatively easy job to polish. If you  do need to scrape any residual paint that may be left over in small cracks, etc., I find dental scrapers to be the best for removing stubborn paint. You should ,however, keep its use to a minimum, as the dental scraper will remove a small amount of the white metal which can diminish fine detail. Also, the dental scraper can gouge the metal if you are not careful and can leave scratches which require sanding. I use polishing paper which will give the model a very smooth chrome like finish. Provided there are no scratches in the metal, polishing is all that is required. I have an assortment of grits:4000,5000,15000,20000,30000,40000 and 60000. They can be purchased at a good hobby store or online. I first though that 40 and 60 thousand grits were overkill, however it is surprising how these can shine the metal. Again, these grits do not remove scratches, they simply polish the metal to a mirror like finish. I then tape off the polished areas with Frogtape  before any paint is applied. A couple of coats of clear after painting will protect that chrome shine. If you haven't clear coated before, give Future (Pledge in Canada) floor polish a try.I like it because you can use it over acrylic, enamel and lacquer and it self levels and doesn't  run unless you really over apply. Just make sure that it doesn't contain ammonia. I almost forgot, I use an airbrush to apply the clear coat. I've never tries to brush it. Hope this helps.

@kenspear   Ken, thank you for your fine lesson.   Now I'm going sand-paper shopping!

Thanks!  That helps a lot.  I had all the paint removed and has polished with 12000 grit paper.  I will have to get some finer paper.  What I didn't know was how you protected the part you didn't want painted.  I assume you do the frog tape just like you would do foil (apply, smooth and cut around??)  I looked up on Amazon and there are quite a variation of Frog tapes.  Do you have a type that works best?

as a recovered polishing addict,I salute Ken`s fine write up 😮 

The Frogtape that I use is green. The container on the outside says Paintblock Technology- keeps paint out, lines sharp, multi-surface Painter's tape. The roll I have is 1" wide. I simply cut it  in small strips to the width that I need. I have never tried to "cut around" the area like I do with foil, I just use very narrow small pieces to handle curves.You could always try to cut around curves etc. to see how it works.

I had a late friend who used to scrape the trim on my Brooklins for me. The end results were fabulous and made the good models into outstanding works of art...for instance he did the 54 Chevrolet and I realized the Power Glide script on the trunk lid was there that I had never seen before.

@kenspear One more question.  Have you ever tried this where you wanted to retain the original paint job?  Have a feeling the answer is no but sure would be nice!

And again-I really appreciate your help.

I have done a scrape & polish on 5 Brooklins without doing a repaint. This includes the black 1959 Desoto, the yellow 1954 Mercury Monarch (I did a partial repaint by changing the roof color to dark metallic green),the turquoise & white 1953 Oldsmobile convertible, the 1951 Ford 2 dr htp and the 1951 Packard in yellow & green. It is a lot more work doing a scrape & polish on an existing painted model and requires lots of masking and total concentration. I prefer to do a repaint.

Hi Michael,

I did several Brooklin and others without repainting them. Masking very well is essential, Tamiya 3mm tape serves me best. Also a set of good knives used for scraping only.

 for polishing I use different "Flex - i - files".  A magnifier can be helpful 😉

Some cars:

1947 Ford Wagon

1942 Oldsmobile

1949 De Soto

@kenspear I think I will try it on one I wouldn't mind repainting if I screw it up.  I would love to see you do one.

 I just did a very simple one (didn't know it is called scrape & polish), didn't scrape, just started with micromesh 3600 and ended with 12000. Similar to Ralf I prefer Tamiya tape. @kenspear and @ralf thanks for the tips, very helpful.

@ralf Beautiful!  Thanks!

@kenspear Thanks for sharing your secret formulas in detail!  I just used cut-and-paste, and saved this to my running Word doc on Modelling Techniques.

It's inspiring me to learn on some hapless piece i find on the Bray.  It's humbling to share a Forum with so many talented artists.