Got a question about panel lines...

[36feet10inches]

... how do you do them, basically?

Wasn't sure if this was one for the "painting" or "weathering" board.

Cheers!

 

[Wurger]

Wayne Little uses a pencil as memo serves.Some of us use the same way.Maglar use oil paints and I use the dirty thinner for acrylic paints.And a few guys use dry pastels. Which way is the best one, it is very difficult to say.Have a look at the weathering section please.There you can find something you need.

 

[Crimea_River]

Here are Wayne's articles:

 

[N4521U]

Just a personal opinion. I think I prefer less pronounced panel line shading. Does every seam have to be so obvious? Maybe just the lines parallel to the leading edge? Wouldn't the dirt and dust be blown free of the others? Or if they were shadows, wouldn't they work the opposite? Just the horizontal lines? I will just have to do even more experimenting. cheers, Bill

 

[Sweb]

Just a personal opinion. I think I prefer less pronounced panel line shading. Does every seam have to be so obvious? Maybe just the lines parallel to the leading edge? Wouldn't the dirt and dust be blown free of the others? Or if they were shadows, wouldn't they work the opposite? Just the horizontal lines? I will just have to do even more experimenting. cheers, Bill

On the small scales up to 1/48th I fill all the panel lines and fastener details. They are typically molded completely out of scale. The fastener detail is also pretty ridiculous with each being almost sub-surface in appearance (non-flush) almost like pulled rivets and screws in worn out panel holes. In those scales you simply shouldn't see it without some magnification. Remember, a 1/48th scale model is like looking at the real airplane 48 feet away. You simply didn't see that kind of detail from that distance. Only the most prominent details might be visible such as separation joints between flying surfaces and feathers like ailerons and other control surfaces, and fuselage to flying surface fairings and fillets. Round engine planes will reveal cowl flap demarkations when closed. But, panel lines and fasteners shouldn't be as pronounced as the kit makers make them to be.

On those small scales I completely finish a model, paint and decals, without panel lines or fastener details and then go back into it with weathering. That's when I'll bring out certain features and most of it with a very light scribing with a sharp blade. An X-Acto #110 blade tip can do all the detail on those scales needed for realism. Some templates will have to be made to scribe around (access doors/panels and such) but they only need to be suggested lightly. Each modeler is different. I grew up around aircraft and still perform maintenance on them. Trust me, they are a lot smoother, and with much tighter-fitting panels and flushness of fasteners, than model companies depict them to be in their moulds.

Many of the panel lines, especially on fuselage skins, are actually inaccurate as moulded by the kit makers. Depending on the company and airplane, they are lap joints where one skin is laid atop another and then riveted. This a much stronger joint, structurally-speaking, with semi-monocoque designs and that's why it's used. The model companies depict them as butt joints where the edges of the skins are placed against each other. The visual difference is the lap joint is hard to see from above and in front of the airplane because the skins are lapped over each other to prevent joints exposed to weather from above and slipstream ram-air. There is no "hard edge" viewable from those perspectives. From a modeling perspective, this joint will never see the same weathering effects as a butt joint. Lap joints will show a sort of vertical seeping discoloration from under one skin onto the skin its riveted over. I mean, there's such an effort to capture every detail of the structure in those small scales and, IMO, it's distracting at best, if not wholly out of scale in both appearance and technical accuracy. It would seem there's more emphasis on creative license than realism. Did I mention I'm a butt-head about such things?

 

[N4521U]

OK then, having said all that, what do you use to fill these panel lines? If you are in fact a butt-head, you got a lot of information in there! You have given a lot of food for thought. cheers, Bill