After a lot of scraping and filing to remove flash, lumps, excreta and other flaws, I washed it carefully in isopropyl alcohol, followed by an extended bath in warm water and dish soap (the kind that has no hand cream in it).
We interrupt this blog post for an Occupational Health & Safety Note: if you are going to use your Dremel on resin, you will be well advised to wear a breathing mask, and to wipe down your entire workspace with a damp rag afterwards. This is also true, although perhaps less so, if you are manually dry sanding or filing -- anything that generates dust needs to be managed carefully. Once done, you'll also want to wash hands and face, and get your clothes into the washing machine. The dust is NOT good for you.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. There were no obvious large brown boogers floating in the alcohol, so either they are still embedded in the body, or there weren't any to start with... The body is porous but at least there are no obvious sinkholes. There is a crack in one of the front fenders that will need filling. A test fit shows that the rear fender opening on the right side sits marginally forward compared to the left side, meaning a shorter wheelbase on that side. I'm not sure the photos show it, but it is pretty obvious.
I am aiming for a more level stance, so I am hoping that sitting the body high enough will mean the wheelbase discrepancy won't be too obvious when completed.
It is of course possible that my build of the chassis is off, but careful measurement shows that this is not likely to be the case. It is hard to build one of these Japanese kits so poorly that he wheelbase would be off by a scale inch.
Next will be some Duplicolor primer sealer, but that will require waiting for the snow to stop. The adventures in resin are only beginning; paint has always been a challenge. Stay tuned!
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