The dreaded "orange peel" effect - or something similar!
There followed the usual process, so well described in Dr Mindbender’s insightful ”Coping with Failure in Railway Modelling: The Four Phases of Modeller’s Recovery” (Wild Swan, 2019):
Phase 1: Despair (”Why me, Lord?”)
Phase 2: Resentment (”Stupid model!”)
Phase 3: Detachment (”It's only a model.”)
Phase 4: Comeback (”Bring it on, orange peel!”)
Moving from phase 1 to 4 can take hours or years, depending on circumstances. I have projects in the cupboard that seem permanently stuck at phase 2 (resentment)!
In this case it went a bit faster. I was at stage 3 (detachment) and about to reach for a wagon kit when a sudden surge of inner strength (a.k.a whisky) prompted a search for "how to strip paint off a glued model". The results suggested that a bath in IPA might do the trick. It did, with a little help from a tooth brush.
Things are now more or less back on track. Due to the 'toothbrushing' and rubbing with Wet & Dry, the edges seem to have lost a little crispness in the process (this is styrene after all, not brass) but it's not too bad, and I'm just happy that the whole thing didn't fall apart. Re-painting is now underway. Phew!
