International Globe Emblem Restoration

I've restored Airstream emblems before, but nothing like this one. This emblem, used from 1958 to 1961, has some very detailed etchings and I had no idea how to go about restoring it until I came across a post by Shari on AIR FORUMS. She had restored a Safari name plate and serial number plate using Sanding Sticks. I had never seen these before and decided to buy some and try them out. As you can see from the pic I think they did a pretty good job.

The process of restoring the emblem was pretty easy, just time consuming. For the job you'll need a good magnifying glass and the aforementioned sanding sticks. First, I applied three coats of dark blue Rustoleum spray paint over the entire emblem. Then I used the sanding sticks using the heaviest grit first to remove the paint from the continents and grid lines. Then I went over these surfaces with finer grit to give the exposed aluminum surfaces a polished look. The International letters were hand painted last. The only obstacle I encountered was removing the numerous scratches that were on the left side of the emblem. Fortunately, aluminum is soft and these came out with some additional sanding.

Now that I've restored one, would I do anything different? I'm not so sure that spray painting the entire emblem was the best course. Perhaps a better approach would have been to lightly sand the continents and name areas first then tape them off before spray painting the oceans.