pre shading

plumline

Hello everyone my mind is drawing a blank what is the reason for pre shading on the panel lines of an aircraft.

A picture says a thousand words

Look at the panel lines. Does it gives you a shading effect? Shading gives yyr model kit a more realistic look.

A model kit without shading or weathering is just a toy.

of course with Pre-shading  we are assuming  air-brushing.     It don't work with hand brushing .   post shading works with  hand brushing

Personally while far from an expert IMO I am yet to see an aircraft look as good with pre-shading as it could with post shading. Why? because IME the pre shaded lines are always to far past the panel lines and it looks over done, to wide. Where post shading using a wash, powders or whatever usually give much finer control and defininition. Pre-shading just seems to be the in thing. On tanks etc yes I have seen pre-shading look as good as post, but almost always theres the weathering added as well in in both pre and post shaded builds plus in armor its edges or other whole items that get shaded not just panel lines like an aircraft

As an after thought one place where pre shading is the only way to go would be on factory fresh paint schemes, bit hard to justify that oil wash there.

my 2c

Andrew

As explained, in airplane and armor modeling pre and post shading are used to accentuate the differing panels and panel lines.

On lighter colours, I prefer pre-shading, as those colours need to be built up in very light layers anyways, and it is easy to control how much of the preshaded colour is showing through. However, in general I prefer post-shading, as I find that it is a far more controllable process.

I just flat don't do it...  I prefer to post-shade with pastels.  Way more control and it's reversible..

Thanks for the info not sure what I will do. Some of the panel lines have been removed due to sanding. This is my first try at filling in seams and such. So I need to work on that part first.

I have found that the secret to pre- shading panel lines is that the base color after pre shading,  must be controlled so that you can see the pre-shaded line through the base coat. This may sound really fundemantal but I never understood it until I got control of the air brush. A light coat is the answer.

Dean

I am with killjoy although I use a three toned approach. First I use a slightly darker shade of the base color at the major panel lines intersections of vertical  and horizontal surfaces or other areas that would be in shadow inder normal lighting conditions. Next I paint the entire surface using the base coat color. Lastly using a slightly lighter shade of the base color I highlight the center of panels or surfaces that would be prone to fading or to represent glare from direct lighting. These to pictures are from a recent project where I used this technique

The photo above is Step 1 and the photo below is the final result.

I hope this gives you an idea as to what I am talking about.

I don't usually do it, and find that painting desert yellow for instance, over a grey primer, and highlighting the center or middle areas of the pannels with progressively lighter tones gives me a similar effect with more control.  Post shading is also easier to correct if you have given yourself too much shadow, you can do a light overspray to 'blend' the look together.

When done correctly the pre shading shows through your primary color and thus making the panel line "pop".  It adds visual interest to break up monotone paint schemes.  Preshading achieves the same thing as post shading, but some like post shading better (because if you go too far covering up your preshading it is tough to re add color wheres post shading you can work up to the desired effect.)

Brian