how to best "scan clean" a colored image?

[Peter Wassink]

What would be the best way to manage a "paper removal" on a colored scan?

the great thing of 'scan cleaning' a black and white image is that it respects all pixels and no information is lost while turning the white into transparent.
With colored images this is not so easy. There is no one-button solution.

Using the scan cleaner doesn't work because not only do the colors go, but it also makes the different areas of color transparent.
I tried using the resulting alpha channel as a mask but still some sort of fill erase step is needed to keep the central color areas opaque

As i am puzzzling over this, non of the FXstack-keyers seem to really get me what i want.
so i am wondering....
How would you do it?

[slowtiger]

Magic wand?

[Fabrice]

Peter,

Please can you post the image ? That would help.