I’m in the process of building all of the planes that my father flew since WWII to his retirement. Three of the aircraft F-86F, RB-66, and B-47 will be done in bare metal foil but I am unsure of the best medium or technique to use to bring out the panel lines. I have tried several acrylic as well as oil based paints on some scrap but with limited success in that they either seem to be to light (blue/black wash) or to dark (thicker black and burnt umber wash) for the scale.
He just turned 90 so I am anxious to complete as you can imagine.
Thanks for any help
Hey HyperViper I haven’t seen much need to use washes in BMF panel lines, however I have used some on control, surfaces. I would think a grey wash would work well to subtly bring out the panel lines. Maybe you can check out the Natural Metal Finish Group build for ideas I am sure you will find help there. Heres the link so you dont have to hunt for it.
/forums/t/112883.aspx
BTW what a great reason for your builds. Oh and from the number of posts you have made a welcome to the forums is in order ?
Try masking off a specific panel and then use a polishing stick on it to give it some grain. Polishing in one direction only…either left to right or front to back. Move to another panel and do the same except polish in just the opposite 90 degree direction. Leave some untouched, you’ll start to see a definite panel pattern.
Besides not all aircraft have definitive panel lines unless you are really close. In a scale effect you would need to have your eyeball within a couple of inches to see them.
What HawkeyeHobbies said will work well, but I used another method that also worked out well. I Use regular house hold foil, never tried the BMF, so I dont know if it is as heavily grained as household foil is. But what I did was apply a panel at a time but turned the grain of the foil in differant directions by 90 degrees. Once burnished the foil did show slightly differant panels as on a real aircraft. You also have to be aware that BMF does have a shelf life once that has passed you will have a very grainy finish due to the adhisive degrading. Personally I think the household foil works much better from a finish point of view. Here is a picture of one of my foil builds I used this panel method on.
Heres a second Pic I think it shows the panels better
Thank you both for your suggestions and for the link. I just hope my humble attempt turns out half as well as both of your’s. If it does I will post some pictures.
One more question if you don’t mind. I am wondering about how the scale will affect the the visual affect of the panel lines. What I mean is, should I try and highlight the panel lines if the scale is 1/72 (I ask because one of the models that I purchased is 1/72 scale and I want to give it some detail.)
BTW, I apologize for my slow response, but I have been out of town on business.
Again thanks for your suggestions
Merry Christmas
HyperViper
HyperViper I think I would sujest building the F-86 first as its a very simple airframe to apply BMF to if you havent worked with the foil in the past. Also I think you will find the panel lines will show up quite well on their own with no washes. What you may want to do like I said in an earlier post is turn the grain of the foil 90 degrees in some places you will be suprised at the effect that creates. I do use a light gray wash in control hinge areas to bring that out a bit more. Another thing to keep in mind is do you want a show bird finish or a dull workhorse finish. For that workhorse finish I use the dull side of the foil dont try and put a dull coat over BMF you will hate what that does to the look of the aluminum. If speed is something you are considering as foil does take more time to apply, I would highly recommend you talk with Hawkeyehobbies about Talon paints, as they do produce a very realistic NMF, and are quite forgiving. Oh and last but not least please do post pictures of your builds 
would love to see them
Marry Christmas to you and yours HyperViper