What are my options for dealing with a model with raised panel lines? I am almost positive that I dont want to scribe lines, I always end up scratching the surrouding area. Should I sand the lines flush with the body of the model? Any suggestions?

I'm not really the guy to answer this, because I would always re-scribe. This is because of my finishing method. I'm preparing a n article at the moment on re-scribing. However I have been thinkig about this subject because at the moment I'm helping someone build the Tamiya A-10, which has raised panel lines and I'm not re-scribing them, because he isn't and I will have to work out a finishing technique for it. So you options depend on lots of things. If you can live with raised lines, then leave them, the only problem you will have is replacing lost detail after sanding, which is another reason why I re-scribe. Another option is to sand of all the raised detail and, after painting, use a fine pencil and draw it back in. I'm talking 1/48 scale so if you are building in smaller scales then sanding off raised detail would, possibley, be fine. In the larger scales I, personally, think that no panel detail just doesn't look right, but that's your call.
What scale and what model is it?
Mal

I personally would rescribe the whole thing. I just finished re-scribing the 1/32 SBD Dauntless from Revell-Germany. Were some errors made?? Yes, but after sanding and prepping the mistakes went away. The plane looks a hell of lot better now than it did with the raised panel lines. Its a pain in the butt, slow and very tedious, but in the end, the effect is worth it.

Hint - You want a challenge?? Try doing it when your fully tanked up on alcohol. Not that I ever did that myself mind you. CHEERS !!!

Yeah I was going to ask a similar question after looking over the new 1/48 Panavia Tornado by airfix. I've also got an P- 3C Orion by hasegawa to consider doing this to aswell. Can anyone recomend what tools to use to scribe these line back in?? I've considered buying a set of dental picks off of ebay for this but there's probably specialised tools by someone ...right??

what do you scribe the lines with? I was planing to do that just as well, thanks

You can buy scribing tools for plastic models. They are relatively cheap, I think the one I bought was about £6. The advantage of using it over my previous method [the blade point of my razor saw] is that it doesn't leave a ridge either side of the engraved line. There are also templates available with a mix of shapes to use as a guide, although I don't use them. I simply cut a piece of thin clear plastic sheet with a straight edge and use it like a ruler to guide the tool. It is flexible enough to follow the curve of the part I'm scribing. Another method could be to use the raised lines as a guide for scribing before sanding them away. It would only need the debris cleaning out of the recesses after.