Moving backwards - problems with a clown

Last week, while I was painting my first Joker model and experimenting with his colour scheme, I had a dreadful realisation that my preparation wasn't up to scratch. Here's the model in question.

As you can see, the effect I'm going for is basing him in an off white / bone colour, then doing all the painting with washes. The downside is that any failure with preparation or mould lines is a big, big problem.

The red lines circle the two problems. An unfortunate casting defect which looks almost like a fabric rip (which I actually mistook for a fabric tear during prep, which is why it was left). I have been thinking hard about it, and I just can't leave it - so back to preparation he goes for some Liquid Green Stuff first aid in the hope of salvaging things!

Wish me luck...