High-lighting engraved panel lines on aircraft

I'd phrase that a bit differently but the point is well taken.  Airplanes do have panel lines.  whether they are really visible at normal viewing distances is something else.  I think many models over-emphasize the panel lines.  On natural finish aircraft you can see the panel lines if you are close enough.  At further distances you can make out some panels because of different alloys or surface treatments.

On painted aircraft the paint tends to fill in most panel lines, except for thos panels which are removable for normal surface.  These can be emphasized if one does it lightly.  Emphasizing panel lines is very much a case of less is better.

If you do heavily weather an aircraft or other vehicle, make sure everything is consistant.  I have seen heavily weathered WW2 aircraft with pristine national markings, kill marks, and pristine shiny and clear canopies.

Airplanes don't have panel lines.

But if you need to add them, and the kit has raised ridges that are supposed to represent  something that doesn't even exist then run a very sharp pencil tip along one side of the ridge.

Sorry Chris-k but I disagree.  Pin wash won't flow into raised panel lines I don't think.  I usually scribe recessed panel lines next to the raised ones then scrape or sand the raised panel lines off if RP lines are not too extensive.  it's tedious, dull and boring but I happen to dislike raised panel lines so I try my best to get rid of them.

Thanks for the tip Don. Sorry about the late reply, but I've been out at work, only got back in just before Easter and have only just tried it. I went with a mix of Tamiya Black and Linoleum Deck Brown (just using what I have at hand) and this seemed to give a nice shade, as well as representing oil/dirt build up in the panel lines. The aircraft is mostly Matt Olive Drab, so it brought them out just nicely. Thank you. Now for some more practice!

Cheers,

Benny B, Adelaide, Australia

Thanks for the tip, just tried it and it worked alright, a bit more practice and all will be well. Thank you!

Most of what folks term pre-shading covers an area beyond the actual panel lines themselves.  One has to be careful not to overdo this.  But pin washes would not give this effect, though I see no reason one could not use a black pinwash and dull it down with a color overspray like pre-shading does.  That would reduce the contrast of the panel line itself, which is often overdone too.

I use stuff called Flory Wash,its pre-mixed,non toxic,and is pretty easy to use.Check it out

www.florymodels.co.uk/washes

here in the US,it is available from www.spruebrothers.com

No worries, I'll give it a shot and see how I go. Thanks for the tip.

Search for "pin wash" here or Google it.  The idea is to let a heavily thinned dark-colored paint flow into panel lines.