I MAY have gotten in over my head. Again. I was considering the 1/32 Italeri Tornado when I realized that I've got a LOT of gray, green and drab models, so one thing led to another and I'm now the... proud...(?) owner of the Big Planes Kits 1/72 CRJ-900. 90% of all of these planes are mostly glossy, shiny white. So how do I get that deep hard shine?

I can do matte and semigloss just fine, and getting a glossy finish on a plane like my Mirage 2000N was easy enough, but a white aircraft has a load of other pitfalls that I want to know how to avoid. Chief of which is the non-archival nature of Future Floor Polish-- I've got an old bottle sitting here where the insides are slowly turning yellow. Yuck!

I've got a pile of micromesh foam sanding pads, a bunch of gloss coats and no idea what to do with them. Help!

So I took your suggestions to heart, and I have a reasonably smooth surface onto which I can start laying down some glossy white. But I've got another problem completely unrelated to paint and it's more to do with the kit itself.

You know, as far as limited run / short run kits go, it's not bad, but there are some really nasty parts that can bite you if you're not ready for them. There's a rotten buttjoin where the fuselage tube meets the rear fuselage and tail assembly, but that can be fixed with some filling and shaping. The instructions in the CRJ-900 kit are for the BPK CRJ-700, so they tell you to use the wrong parts here and there (but it's easy to figure out which is which). The resin pieces are absolutely stunning, because they're 3D printed SLA resin. The fan blades are all individual and quite delicate and this is really tugging on my wallet to buy a SLA printer of my own.

BUT THERE'S A HUGE PROBLEM. The resin intake and fan for the engines are WAY, WAY, WAY TOO BIG for the engine halves! I've properly aligned the halves on the "topside" and they're flush.
What am I supposed to do about THIS?!

I'm thinking ahead and having this gap, this void, this YAWNING GAPING CHASM on the underside of the engine nacelles so it's harder to notice, but that doesn't really solve the problem. You see, that's the cold duct of the turbofan, so I can't really just slap some putty in there and hope for the best. Whatever fills those gaps needs to be a little elastic so that it's able to deal with the flexing and abuse that comes with sanding and polishing.

Hi Wes!

I just checked the kit contents online, and I agree with our friend's @kalamazoo advice.

I believe you should persist reducing the fan blades width, so they will fit, without having a gap between the cowling halves. I think this is possible. You may even use a bastard file to file the fan circumferentially (resin dust precautions must be taken). You may even sand down the inner of the cowlings with some 240 grit sand paper, progressing to finer grades. This will increase the inner diameter, so the reduced width fans will fit at last.

Bottom line: file/sand everything down till everything fits without any gaps. If this us not possible, only then leave a gap and proceed filling it.