Painting an F-18 from FSM magazine May issue

Hello everyone

I bought May’s issue of Fine Scale Modeler and noticed in the article for Carrier-Deck Diorama.

It has a picture of the F-18 which you can see here.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/lh/photo/Qif6D-yEg2JmzrtxrGILcyVZO9TKqWSmXGHG9BmT-r8?feat=directlink

I like the basic shade of light gray all over, but then there are dark lines where there are panels on the fighter. If there were grooves in these locations I would say just using a pencil to show the panels.

However there are no grooves to run the pencil down.

Can you tell me the secret of how this is done.

Scott

Scott,

Whilst i can’t profess to know the exact answer, my suggestion would be to pre-shade those lines with a darker colour (how dark depends on the overall colour, eg, a dark gray under a lighter shade of gray), the same way you might pre-shade panel lines prior to painting.

Then paint over the top (you should be able to see a very faint outline of the pre-shade underneath).

Following that, and depending on whether you think they contrast enough, use some ground pastels on a brush and go over those pre-shaded lines, to make them pop a little more.

Hope this helps.

I’ll be interested to see anyone else’s tips too - perhaps I can refine my technique or even learn a new one.

Chris.

Thanks Chris

I will try it out

Scott