I just bought a Revell Supermarine Mk 1/11 and while I did give it, what I thought was a ‘fair’ appraisal at my LHS, I received quite a shock when I got home. I was examining the 3 large sprues of parts more closely and noticed something was not quite right. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it so I went back and did a detailed examination, this time, using a mag glass and surprise, surprise…the new wing assembly on this kit has quite well done but had recessed panel lines. Problem is, the fuselage panel lines are all raised!!!
I’ve checked and re-checked this rather strange phenomena out and its true: half the plane has raised panel lines, the other half is recessed - both by the way are well done in their own way.
Here’s the problem. I’ve never done any re-scribing before and I’m just a little bit intimidated. This kit pretty much cleaned out this months allowance and next months as well, although I guess for a 1/32 with about 65 ± pieces, I guess $42 CDN was about average given the exchange rate. Still, I sure don’t want to make a mess of what looks like the makings of a fun kit just because I “rushed in where fools fear to tread.”
Where do I get some info on removing raised panel lines and scribing new ones? Anyone know of any sites giving away this info for free this month?
To remove all the old panel lines, do I trim them off with a sharp blade, which I think will leave me with a nice ‘guide’ for scribing in my new lines, or do I sand them off, which will do a ‘flush’ job but leave me with a rather sterile fuselage body? Is there another option?
Further, I don’t own a proper ‘scribing tool’ - what should I look for in the shops or web supply houses?
All in all this looks like a pretty nice kit and I’m surprised that Revell would put it out like that but I’m really new to this and am just learning what to expect - which seems more and more to be to ‘expect the un-expected’ or am I really missing something really basic here?
This stems from the kit, originally, being the Hasegawa VB, which has entirely raised panel lines. Revell did the new wings, and made the panel lines recessed. I’ve built several Spitfires, of various Marks, using the VB as a basis, and used an Olfa P-cutter, mostly, for rescribing the lines. It really isn’t that difficult, provided that you scribe the lines gently, and make several passes; do not try to do it in one go. The Olfa cutter can be used straight on the raised lines, and will just remove them; any slight reside can be sanded off afterwards.
OK, I found a picture of one on the internet and called my 3 local hobby shops - none of them carry such a beast. Now begins the hunt. Any of you know of any bush I can beat to locate one?
And if you really want the Olfa knife, check your Home Depot/Lowes type stores. They even carry them at Sherwin Williams Paint stores. But I’ve never used one for my scribing. I use the blades shown in Swanny’s tutorial.
Also, you might find that the Olfa P-Cutter scribes lines rather deeper than you want. I use an ordinary sewing needle, held in a pin vice, for re-scribing work, and find that it works very well.
[#ditto] I use a couple of different sized needles for 90% of my re-scribing.
To rescribe an aircraft, I usually sand off all of the offending raised lines and mark off new ones using a 3-view drawing. Here’s a link to some Spitfire 3-views:
A characteristic that provides propellor-beanie-headed, clod-poles with endless extra hours of building time…
OK! Jus a kidd’n!
“Raised Panel Lines” means:
The skin of the airplane has teeny little lines raised a teeny little bit above the rest of the surface that represent the joints of the various sheets of skin. Doors, access panels and other borders sometimes are represented by the raised lines too.
“Recessed Panel Lines” means:
Just like the explanation above, except the lines are grooves that are cut into the surrounding skin.
I NEVER SCRIBE! NEVER EVER!
When I’ve got raised lines, I paint a nice dark primer over the airplane. After the final color is painted on and dry, I wet sand lightly over the raised lines and such to expose the dark grey primer on all the high spots such as rivits and “raised panel lines” and let the detail just come on OUT! It looks terrific!
Raised panel lines date from neanderthal times, when mould-makers found it easier to inscribe lines into the metal, which translated into raised lines on the model. I’ve found that, if the P-cutter scribes too deep, don’t press so hard! We are talking 32nd scale, remember, and the -450 cutter, not the P-800, which I keep, solely, for large lines, like ailerons & flaps.
Possibly only available direct from Japan, Hasegawa supply a gorgeous “Trytool,” LINE ENGRAVER 1, which has the part no. TT-10; if you can find, and get it, handle with care, it’s bl—y sharp!
One of our club members found a way of simulating the P-cutter’s shape, on a single-edged razor blade, by using a grinder; unfortunately, he died before he could impart the knowledge, so I’m still trying to work out how he did it.
In the old days, up until the widespread advent of computer-driven milling machines in the early 1980s, raised panel lines were the norm. You can see that it’s a lot easier to scribe a panel line into a mould or a master than it is to manually remove everything apart from the panel line, in order to create a recessed panel line on the kit that’s produced from the mould. Thus it was that, up until the late 1970s, only top-end kits tended to have recessed panel lines. A noteable exception was Matchbox kits, and the wide, trench-like panel lines for which they are notorious are good illustrations of why raised panel lines aren’t always worse than recessed ones.
From the early-mid 1980s, however, because the manual input has been largely removed from making moulds for plastic model kits, it’s become much easier to create moulds with recessed panel lines, and these are now the norm even on the least expensive lits.
Generally, recessed panel lines are thought to be more realistic than raised ones, but there are plenty of examples of kits with raised panel lines which look at least as good as their recessed-line competitors. The Hasegawa 1/32 Spitfire Vb and the Airfix 1/48 Hurricane are two such. Also, when you remove panel line detail - through cleaning up a seam, for example - it’s a lot easier to restore a recessed panel line than it is a raised one. Moreover, if you need to add panel line detail, it’s much easier to scribe a new recessed one than it is to make a new raised one from, for example, very fine heat-stretched sprue.
