Soft Mircro Sanding Sheets or Pads ?

[schooner]

Hi Gang ( Newbie Here )

What's the best to use -

Micro Little Sheets or or

High Grid Sandpaper to smooth down putty high spots. Or have both ?

What's the advantage of them both ?

Thanks Guys

Ray M.

a.k.a. schooner

IPMS #50394

[Nick Filippone]

You know-sometimes the best way to learn is just to start trimming, cleaning, glueing, filling, sanding, painting and decaling. You will soon find out, as we all have, what works best for you! You learn more from mistakes than what you do right. Nick Filippone

[ghodges]

I prefer sanding sticks for most of my smoothing work. You can get them from a hobby shop, but I get mine from Sally's Beauty supply. They're bigger and less expensive than the hobby brand sticks. They're foam backed, double sided, and can be used wet or dry. They can also be cut into shapes with points that allow you to get into tighter spots.

 

You need 3 basic "grits": coarse, medium, and fine. I'd also recommend getting a "triple grit" sanding stick that has 3 grits on one stick: fine, very fine, and very very fine. That's one you use for fine sanding and then polishing out items that need a glass smooth finish, like when removing scratches from a clear canopy.

 

If you want larger sheets of sandpaper, I recommend 3M wet-or-dry sand paper, which is available in almost any hardware department or store. You can get a variety pack, or buy individual packs of 250, 400, and 600 grit. These can be cut into squares or strips and folded into squares or wrapped around paint brush handles.

 

If you want REALLY fine grit papers, there are sanding/polishing kits available that come with grits in the "thousands" (1000, 1500, 2000, etc up to 10,000). These are needed for high gloss car model finishes and come in handy when prepping a surface for a natural metal finish. They also usually include liquid pastes and polishes for the final steps.

 

Hope this helps!

 

GIL :smiley16:

Edited December 27, 2016 by ghodges