I’m building the Academy 1/32 F/A-18c and have heard that the panel seams acrually are lighter than the panels. Is this true? Should I now post shade the panels? I was thinking of giving it a coat of Future then putting a liquid soap/light color paint/water mixture on the panel seams then wiping off with qtips. I could then airbrush parts of the panels here and there to represent corosion control paint.
Any suggestions out there - has anyone tried this? Is there any difference between wear appearance between the top and bottom of the a/c?
Thanks a bunch,
Paul
What!!! Just today I discovered Pre-Shading…now there is Post Shading ???[banghead]
I this just the “standard” weathering like pastels or a wash?
Post shading is easy to do. If you use Pastels and you dont like the results you can always wash it off and do it again. I use dark for the panel lines and White or light grey in the center of the panel moving outward gradually. If you think that the panel line on Navy a/c are lighter try using a lighter color, but your best bet would be to check out the refrence books first to see the actual colors and effects of weather on the a/c. My A-10 is post shaded.
Go read the last couple of pages in the F-14 Group Build thread…this subject has come up recently.
Do whatever, it’s all good. Pre-shade the lines black, or white, wash them, don’t wash them…no one person has the right or wrong answer.
The best thing to do is work from a photo because really, it all depends on who was on shift in the corrosion control shop that particular day and what paint he had available. I have many books on the F-14 and Navy planes in general and looking at all the photos, there really is no rule on what you should do. If you look at photos, you’ll see that some have light panel lines and others dark. Some light spot priming and others not so light. Do what looks right to your eyes.
Thanks to all of you for your comments/suggestions. Much appreciated!
Cheers,
Paul