I will attempt to create this multi-paneled look on my F-100 by adding gloss black and gloss white and other colors to my aluminum plate lacquer, but how do I know which panels should be darker and which should be lighter? One panel is dark, other panel is light, but what’s the method to this madness?
There’s really no specific places of what panels should be lighter or darker. You can determine that, by adding enough to break up the monotony of the single shade without overdoing the shaded metal on too many panels. Take a look at photos you want to model, and plan it from there.
Yes. The best thing to do is check your refs. Also, raised panels or panels with angles or curves generally tend to be slightly lighter in the scale model world.
Go to google and do an “image” search for the plane you are modeling. Photographs are the best reference for the shade of NMF panels. Usually the difference is either due to different alloys or different finishing processes on the rolling/forming.