panel lines

Well, I have experience with resesed panel lines. Go to a any hobby store and see if you can find any micronpens. Thes come in sizes and colors rangeing from 1mm to .005mm tips. I use the .005mm size for panel lines on my gundam models. Sorry that I don't know about raised panel lines, but, maybe others on the site know.

P.S. I am new....

rexkilla,

Finalman's technique for recessed panel lines will work very nicely. Shading raised panel lines can be a bit of a pain. I've used these techniques:

1. If the line is not to high, I'll just run a pencil along the line.
2. If it's high, then I'll pain it either black or brown before I shoot my base color. After it's dry, I shoot a coat of Future over the black or brown. After the Future is dry, I'll shoot the base and after the base is dry, I'll will go over the panel lines with super fine sandpaper. Just enough to remove the base color, showng the black or brown.
HTH

John

instead of a marker, seal your model with a gloss coat after painting. Mix a wash of paint in whatever colours you want to do for the panels (dark blue/black for blue, dark brown for whites, reds, yellows, black for brown)

Apply this to your panel lines carefully. Don't worry too much about going out of the lines. Next, make a mix of water with a bit of alcohol or windex. Use a cotton swab to clean where you went over. This works best for shallow panel lines where your pen might slip out.

The gloss coat allows your to scrub off the paint. If the surface was matt the wash would stain the paint where it goes outside of the lines.

Who came up with the idea to shade and mark panel lines? I worked on jet fighters, (F-102, F-4 and F-111) twenty six years and at no time were you able to see panel lines as decipted on models I have seen. If you got close enough you could see panel lines, only on the panels that was removed most often, but not as drastic as some people paint their models. I try to paint and weather my models as realistic as possible. Some people that have viewed my models have commented that the paint job doesn't look correct. I tell them that it looks that way on the real aircraft.

I agree w/berny13 ... panel lines on scale a/c should be faintly seen, if at all, depending upon scale and color or lack thereof (natural metallic finish).

I am a very firm believer in ... you should build 'em like you see'em. If a builder likes to exaggerate panel lines on an a/c model ... then it must be because he/she either likes the look of distinct panel lines ... or ... he/she sees (perhaps in their "minds-eye"), the 1/1 scale a/c that way. Sometimes, with all the panel lines exaggerated the scale a/c can begin to look like a jigsaw puzzle.

I feel that a scale model a/c looks best with faint panel lines rather than the highly exaggerated panel lines.

Just my humble opinion ...

All great points. One thing I want to try on my next project is to darken the pannel line areas by applying a base coat of black or dark gray. Then apply the finish coat, weathering, etc. I'm interested to see if this technique will cause the panels to look more like a panel by giving it some depth.

The only other thing I would add, and this would depend on the subject, is that areas around panel lines can be fresh paint (as would occurr on a modern naval aircraft where they touch up paint all the time), or darker due to good old fashion dirt and grime. Again, it depends on your subject so do your homework.

But I agree that causing the panel line to jump out is the wrong approach for a scale look.

Berny, the purpose is to express depth and natural shadows that occur on the real aircraft that does not translate to scale. If you don't shade the panel lines, the airplane will look very flat and homogeneous.

If you look at WWll aircraft where panels and doors did not fit very well you can see from a distance the panel lines. As aircraft started going faster the designers cleaned up the aircraft to cut down on drag. On modern jet aircraft panels and doors fit very snug and are not visible unless you get very close. Panels that are removed a lot of times for maintenance will have paint chipped around the panel as well as the surrounding area. Also screws would be damaged, lost, replaced and would not always match the surrounding paint. I can see very faint shadowing around a panel line, but speaking from experience it just doesn't look right to over do it.
Each person building a model should do what he/she wants. If a person wants to outline each panel and door, I say go for it. You are out to please yourself and shouldn't worry what other people think. Having worked up close to jet aircraft for many years, it just doesn not look right to me. That is just my opinion.

raised panel lines
my method is paint all the model gloss black, after the paint is dry apply several light coate of future, then (after 48 hs) paint the model in the final colors, after that gently sand (use an ultra thin sandpaper) in all raised panel lines, and voila is done
hope this helpyou

Jeremy

try el jere's tequnique it works good.

QUOTE: Originally posted by el_jere raised panel lines my method is paint all the model gloss black, after the paint is dry apply several light coate of future, then (after 48 hs) paint the model in the final colors, after that gently sand (use an ultra thin sandpaper) in all raised panel lines, and voila is done hope this helpyou Jeremy