When I finally decided to build my old Hasegawa 32nd P-51D, which had the raised details, I started to completely remove the bits with a tool designed for that. Name on the tool is "Micro Mark," I think I ordered it from their hobby website, it works pretty well. I also found with careful placement of the blade, a curved X-acto blade does OK.
As I struggled to remove the details without gouging the surrounding surface, I realized not all of the details have to be removed 100%. If just the tiniest bit remains after planing it can easily be finished with sanding, which you would do anyway to prep for painting.
In the case of convex curved areas there seems no other choice, it's sanding only, but there weren't so many of those surfaces and it went fast. Once I got on a roll, the kit only required about 2 hours for removal of all of the raised details. There is a lot of surface area on that bugger, I got well acquainted with all of it.
Patrick