I didn't dare to suggest that, but I'm sure you're doing the right thing. As construction progresses, you'll soon have gone too far to do anything more with the deck planking, and it would annoy you every time you looked at it. It's going back a few years, but my first ever planked deck and my third were on the same model. I had my first attempt at proper deck planking and thought it was wonderful. I had another build on the go at the same time, so got on with planking that one, and with the experience I'd gained, the second one was better, and the first model didn't look quite so good. So I made a decision similar to yours, and sanded away most of deck number one and re-did it. On materials, I've only ever used black paper or card, depending on the scale, so can't advise on the insulation tape method, but I always use cellulose based materials like good old fashioned sanding sealer for basic finishing, they penetrate wood well, are fast drying and sand much better than oil based products like most paints and varnishes. Have to confess though, that I only build in wood, I've never used styrene for anything other than fittings and details, and you can't use sanding sealer on that.