Hi Everyone
What is the best color to use on an all black aircraft to bring out the panel lines? I have heard of using a light grey but seems wrong to me, any ideas?
I haven’t built my F-117 yet but I would think a med-light grey and maybe even browns -tan would work. It’s going to have to be a lighter color than black and on a real plane that’s what’s going to show, the lighter dirt and dust. If you make it up as a plane that’s in the desert it would have a lot of tan dust on it that would show real well against the black.
I would try whatever you decide you like and if it turns out that you don’t like it, then just try some different shades and colors.
I’m sure there’s some folks with more experience than me that can give you a better answer since I’m just guessing[:D] I’m sure you’ll get more feedback on this.
Eric
Hey leitch,
I do a couple of things along these lines (forgive the pun) for overall black aircraft.
I’ll sometimes use some brown tones (pastels) as well as grays, but I’ve actually found black pastel to be very effective. The black of the pastel and the black of the paint will invariably be different, the pastel will appear to be a bit lighter. I also buff the panels a bit just to suggest some variation of sheen. And when using pastels, I usually will work on the panels themselves, leaving the lines dark.
I generally don’t do too awful much on a black aircraft, it’s easy to overdo things. Here’s some photos of a Hurri that I did some time back:
Fade to Black…
I built a “what if?” RF-101B Voodoo a couple years ago that I did in an all-black, suedo-Blackbird look. I high-lighted panel lines on this flat black aircraft by airbrushing them with semi-gloss clear. That created a nice contrast. Gary.
OOOOOOH! Black Voodoos! They do look sharp, I’d like to do that Canadian demo bird from years back. Gotta find some pics…
Fade to Black…