PHR Dropfleet are killing me.

The huge sprue joins on the curved upper hull sections are proving to be a big problem for me. No amount of trimming and filing is seeming able to get rid of an ugly lumpiness left over. I would be hugely grateful if anyone could share a good technique for getting a smooth result on their ships.

Scrape it gently with a hobby knife. Don't try to whittle it away. Just scrape, scrape, scrape, sooooo gently, and it'll smooth out.

Go to your local hardware store and ask for some 'wet and dry paper'.

Remove any large lumpy areas with a file and once you have got it to a semblance of flatishness;
Wet the paper and then sand the hull with it. This should bring it up with a nice shine.

Bon chance mon brave!

I've been using emery boards to get the tops nice and smooth (I actually file down the whole ridge, so the top of the ship is a flat, rounded surface, but that's personal preference).

I have the opposite problem, the smooth parts of the hull are easy for me, but all the ribbed/textured parts along the bottom and main engine have very visible seam lines that are an absolute pain to fill in

Thank you all for your advice, I'll give it a whirl and hopefully have pretty ships at the end of the day.

I use a curved file and i file length wise