Let me apologise right now if this turns into a blatant piece of advertising! I've often read about paint-polishing kits but, in the past, I've made do with a nail-buffer. While this certainly polishes the paint, it's quite difficult to get into tight areas and the lack of "feel" makes it all too easy to polish right through to the plastic!
Last week I treated myself to a set of Micromesh polishing cloths. The pack contains 5 progressively finer cloths and a foam pad. The cloths are like extremely fine wet & dry on a fabric backing - so they are very flexible and can reach the tightest nooks and crannies.
Having previously applied 6 or so coats of Klear (Future) with a flat brush (see Holdfast's excellent article on brushing Klear on his Bf110G), I jumped right in and polished my Battle of Britain Campaign Bf109E. Here you can see the neat Klear - quite shiny, but with specs of dust trapped in the varnish and more of a "sheen" than a "high-gloss".
The first step was to use 3600 grade cloth. The instructions are very clear and state that you must try to "sand" in straight lines, NOT circular scrubs. This completely took the shine off, but flattened out any rough spots and dust. I didn't use the pad, preferring to feel my way with a fingertip.
Micromesh say to work up through the cloth-grades one-by-one, but I jumped a grade straight to no. 6000. Whatever, this time you must work at right angles to your previous strokes. The result was instantaneous and amazing. Look at that gloss!
Now, remember, there are still another two grades to go! I actually stopped here, because this looked quite good enough for decals to sit on, and the a/c will end up in a semi-matte finish.
Micromesh isn't cheap (£8.99 at Hannants), but the cloths cleaned up well with detergent and should last some time. The technique is really simple and the results fantastic.
I know there are other similar sets available - if you haven't tried paint-polishing yet, give it a try... I don't think you'll be disappointed!
All the best
Rowan
