Smoothing Plastic (Asking for Tips)

[Jannix Quinn]

I bought myself a Nerf Maverick to play around with, and it's my intention to paint it something like this.

I've started sanding off all the nerf logos with my rotary tool, and sanded it with various sand papers, but the plastic is still a little scratched.

Does anyone have any tips on getting the plastic as smooth as possible? There's a load of attachments on the rotary tool, but the brand I bought doesn't come with any information, so I don't know which tool is the best for polishing or cutting or anything.

 

[AnubisGuard]

Tip #1: don't use a rotary tool. Sand the logos off by hand, starting with with the roughest grade of paper and working your way smoother. By the time you hit about 220 grit, it would be a good idea to wet sand with the remaining grits. If you're really concerned about keeping the surface even, wrap the sandpaper around a wide Popsicle stick or other flat, stiff, object that you can use to sand it evenly. If you get through the fine grits and you still have obvious scratches, back up a couple of grades and sand it over again. The deep marks were probably left by one of the roughest papers and didn't get buffed out by the next finer grade.

And the biggest hint #2, at least in my experience: don't use a rotary tool. All you'll succeed in doing is digging big trenches and scuffs in your plastic, because it's a lot harder to control how deeply the tool is digging in, compared to doing it by hand.

 

[exoray]

Tip #1: don't use a rotary tool. Sand the logos off by hand, starting with with the roughest grade of paper and working your way smoother. By the time you hit about 220 grit, it would be a good idea to wet sand with the remaining grits.

And the biggest hint #2, at least in my experience: don't use a rotary tool. All you'll succeed in doing is digging big trenches and scuffs in your plastic, because it's a lot harder to control how deeply the tool is digging in, compared to doing it by hand.

Yeah what he said, put the power tool away as there is no replacement for good old fashion elbow grease in getting a smooth finish...

And wet sanding is your friend, you likely want to get down to a 400 wet sand before you primer...

 

[Jannix Quinn]

Err.. Uh... Ok.

I um.... already.......didn't use a rotary tool.

 

[jackdoud]

If you've got deep scratches get some filler putty and skim a coat over the areas to give yourself a new base.

 

[division 6]

There is also sandable filler primer.
For deep scratches I'd go with the glazing putty first.

sand, putty, sand, primer to check work then repeat till smooth.