problems with a 55 chevy bel air

[wayward]

I bought a Revell model kit from Wal-mart a few weeks ago to try and get back into modelling with some spare time i have and to help me kill free time instead of smoking so much (doc recomended it)

when i bought the kit, it came with glue and three colors of paint, the car was molded with a semi gloss black plastic, it also came with only one brush, my problem was that i dont posess the hand eye co-ordination to paint the trim on the car, it is very small trim down the sides that is supposed to be metal colored, the window trim and a couple of emblems.

one of the guys i work with does military modeling and assured me he could take care of the trim work and painting the small details, as i dont have much experience with it i said ok. i got it back from him yesterday and was dissapointed to say the least with the results, he painted it very shoddily and used a flat black paint to cover up his drip and where he painted off the trim. so now i have a flat black stripe going down the sides of the car along with grey spots on the roof of it.

i dont have a lot of experience with plastic cars and I am afraid if i try to sand it down, it'll take the molded details with it, and scratch up the plastic quite a bit. is there some kind of thinner i can use that wont eat thru the plastic? also is there a type of brush or technique that is best used for extremely intricate details?
i wanted this car to look good, and right now its looking like the models i used to spray paint and slap together quickly when i was a lot younger.

is there a way to save it?

[gpz900ra7]

Hi and welcome, do you know what sort of paint he used to mess up your kit? , do a search on the forum about paint stripping, it might be your only option I'm afraid to say. If you need to paint trim in silver, go to an art store and ask for a fineline marker, in the UK there is a brand of fineliner pens made by a company called PENTEL, they come in gold and silver, they are supposed to be used for decorating greeting cards but they are really good for detailing small parts , I use them all the time. I hope you find what you're looking for and my post has helped you out in some small way, and by the way, military modellers only paint in matt/flat colours anway, gloss to them is sacreligious

[wayward]

thanks a lot for the help. and the paint my friend used was a semi black that came with the model kit.

i just was disgusted with it and used my girlfriends nail polish remover and took all the paint off.
i then used the tutorial on painting window trim for all the chrome that goes down the side of the car and the emblems...

needless to say it looks just as bad.
but then my girlfriend remembered she had a silver sharpie and i tried with that. it turned out brilliant compared to the other work i did tonight. so tomorrow i am going to clean the car again, tape off and use the sharpie, it doesnt bleed like the paint does and hopefully i can do a better job of cutting out the masking. thanks for the help and the welcome though. this is the first model i am trying to actually do a really good job on.

[gpz900ra7]

Hey no problem, just build it to satisfy yourself, that's all I do, and as long as you enjoy yourself while you build kits then thats the main thing.