Does anyone know if the technique for highlighting panel lines,
pre-shading, will work with a Alclad NMF?
I know the pre-shading technique normally uses a darker color for panel
edges over a light base coat, and Alcald NMF suggests using black base
coat. Maybe a med grey base coat with black edges would work or a black
base coat with light grey edges?
Any suggestions would be helpful, thanks
[?]
Welcome to the FSM Forums [#welcome]. IMHO, post shading would be more effective with Alclad2. I paint overall Aluminum, then mask & paint various panels in different shades, Dark AL, White AL, Polished AL, etc. Panel lines can then be accented with a light wash.
Regards, Rick
I noticed in the recent FSM that tempera paints are a cheap and no-miss way of post shading. Since panel lines have always managed to be difficult for me, I stopped by Hobby Lobby and picked up some colors. THey happen to be 30% off this week.
Check out the article in FSM. For a few dollars, I thought I’d give it a try.
Hmm… I think this depends on whether you want to highlight the panels or darken the recesses between them. On larger ships (planes as well as Sci-Fi) I will actually run lighter tints of a color in the panel lines instead of darker washes at times. It helps the bevel edges kick up a nice highlight and can be as effective as a good pre-shade or wash. Much less effecitve on smaller scale craft. I wouldn’t do it on certain :48s or smaller.
For using Alclad ahead of a paint job… I will dust areas of heavy wear with steel or aluminum before painting my regular paint schemes, then pick through the paint and kick up the surface so that I mimic a real-life chipping effect; paint chips get kicked up to reveal ‘raw metal’ underneath.