I agree with your Dad...
Sand entire airplane with 400 grit wet dry sand paper. repeat. repeat, again.
Get your Dremel, and put a soft tip on it.
Goto the auto parts store, and tell em you want some aluminum polish, and some paste wax...
Use Dremel and soft tip to apply polish...
when completely done, paste wax entire plane...
oh and, on an unrelated subject:
The 'Rake' is the angle that the wires come out of the wingtip from the
bellcrank,in effect the model is flying and canted slightly outside of
the circle which is what you are aiming for,'leadout' is where the
control wires come out of ie the wingtip supports,add a bit of
sidethrust to the engine plus a tad of rudder to keep the lines taught
at all times,by doing this you will have a model that is pleasant to fly
and not come in at you as it enters the into wind position of the circle...