Newbie - Sanding & Polishing

After reading all the useful information and advice on painting the body. I've put to practice most if not all of everyone's suggestions. However, I'm wondering if sanding the body after painting, prior to applying compound and wax is necessary. Doesn't sanding leave small scratch marks in the paint (i've used 2000 grit paper for a light sand)? In fact even using Tamiya compound seems to leave small scratches on the paint which applying wax does not seem to get out. Although the body would be gleaming, the small scratches does bother me. Am I being too much of a perfectionist?

I'm also running into issues with bubbles forming especially around wheel rims of the body. Most likely from using too much paint and it running. Do you guys think it would be possible just to sand down these areas and repaint, without doing whole body again? It seems that when I try to target areas to paint with a spray can, I tend to get orange peel effects on the surrounding areas. Perhaps I should mask?

Thanks for all the advice so far. Having great fun with my first model but would like to do it well.

Try MicroMesh for sanding..goes up to 12000grit. You don't even have to polish or use wax after using it :smile:

Link to MicroMesh:
http://www.dxmarket.com/micromark/dir/search.html?searchstring=micromesh

Perhaps I should mask?

In my experience, if the paint hasn't cured masking and painting would turn nasty

Even if the paint has cured, most likely the masking tape will leave 2 different shades of color on areas masked and painted.

just my experience, tho

dont bother trying to mask an area off to touch up a small area- i tried it on my first model car when i rubbed through to the primer while polishing it up, and you end up with a horrible "step" where the new paint is slightly thicker than the old paint. Best bet is just to give the whole body another few light coats until youve covered up the area, then wait at least a week before polishing it up.

the micromesh system is recommended by pat covert, the guy who writes all the model how-to books, also in this months TAMIYA MMI.

looks like a great system...i'm going to try it out...

gotta be careful not to cut too much if you don't have paint depth though. 2500 grit is the "roughest" in the micromesh system.

If you notice scrartches left by 2000 grit paper, you can use coarser compund such as scratch remover for a real car. But, this has a risk of rubbing through to the primer, so be careful.
Instead, you can use finer sand paper, like 4000 or 6000.
I use Detail Master's polishing kit, which contains 3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, 8000 and 12000. Probably the same as the MicroMesh.

Some links

MicroMesh conversion chart: http://www.sculpt.com/catalog_98/abrasives/micromesh.htm

Here I ordered it from:
http://www.dxmarket.com/micromark/products/80939.html

Only sand the body if it has orange peel. If you are happy with the paint job, just use rubbing compound and wax to finish it off