# Detailing aircraft panel lines



## myk (Oct 5, 1999)

I have never built an aircraft model before and I am wondering how you go about detailing the panels lines and recesses. I am working on a WWII Japanese plane, and I am at the point where I gloss coated everything. I would like to detail the panels and apply the decals, before dull coating everything. Any suggustions would be greatly appreicated. Thanks.


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## btbrush (Sep 20, 2010)

Hiya Myk,
Check out Fine Scale Modelers' website for a wealth of info and books you can get about weathering. But in a nutshell, apply your decals, seal them, apply dullcoat, make a sludge wash to paint in the panel lines, wait till that dries then wash off the excess with a damp cloth in the direction of airflow. Apply final seal. Go to frig, open frig, grab bottle of beer, etc..
Bruce


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## agentsmith (Mar 27, 2005)

By far the easiest and safest way to add details to the panel lines of your model is to use artists oil paints and oderless paint thinner like Turpinoid. Thin the oil paint to where its almost like a colored thinner and use a narrow paint brush and touch the paint brush on a panel line and the paint will flow into it neatly if you have a gloss coat on your model. If you don't like how it looks it is easy to remove it with a paper towel with a little oderless thinner on it.
I don't coat the whole model like you would with a sludge wash, a sludge wash is very messy and there is a lot of waste involved, instead I keep the washes confined to the panel lines only.

The choice of color for the panel line wash is important, you don't always want to use black unless the surface of the model itself is very dark, I use a darker version of the color on the model and use that for detailing the panel lines. For example, if the lower surfaces of your model is a light gray use a darker gray for the panel lines instead of black. I have seen pictures on the net of a number of well built and painted models that the were ruined by the modeler using black paint to highlight the panel lines evenly over the entire model and instead of looking more realistic it made them look very toy like. 
The same can be said for doing pre-shading, if its overdone the model can sometimes look like a flying quilt instead of an airworthy airplane.

The best advice I can give you is don't try to copy other models and how they are weathered, instead look at photograph's of the real thing and copy the weathering you see on them.

Agentsmith


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## btbrush (Sep 20, 2010)

Always use dissimilar mediums. Oil based paint over acrylics or acrylics over oil based. Or use a barrier coat of Future or Dullcoat.
Bruce


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

What I like to do is pick out all the panel lines in mechanical pencil before the Future coat. Then future and decals and dullcoat. Then go at it with weathering pastels, and seal with more dullcoat.


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## myk (Oct 5, 1999)

Thanks - guys. These are all great tips. I have the decals on and will start with the panels lines soon.


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