Currently working on an Airfix 1/72 A-1D Skyraider. Panel lines arent the greatest, and I’ve never attempted a rescribe. Whats a preferred way to do this?
RotorHead10, I was reading this earlier. It’s very interesting:
The way I do it and have really good success is using electrical tape cut into smaller strips to mark the edge of the line and then use a sharp xacto knife (use the tip and the dull side of the blade) and use the electrical tape as a guide. Do this very lightly though, if you do it with too much pressure you can slip and cut the tape or worse score the model. Score the model until you can fell that you’ve made a decent line and then pull the tape and check it. You dont want to cut too deep. If you make any mistakes, light putty, nail polish (acetone stuff), and some sandpaper will do the trick. Once you finish your lines, if you clogged any other lines with debris, you can take the tip of you knife and very very gently clean them out. Circles, curves, and odd shapes are a bit more difficult but with practice a patience they are just as easy.
Hope this helps!!!
There’s always a .3mm pencil to just draw the lines on after painting and/or decaling. Just a thought.
http://s271.photobucket.com/user/riptide212/media/20140202_143430_zpsoxxzdtiv.jpg.html?sort=3&o=
this is what i use to scribe with, it has a nice round edge and when using it does not cut the model if you go out of lines. i got it at advanced auto. it works very good and i did my whole model in aobut 20 mintues or so. and follows lines with ease.
A sewing needle works best for me.
Hey, Chris, I found that buying some refill tips for the scriber that the folks who make the Flex-i-file works great in my pin vise.
Thanks for the advice to all; just curious to know how you guys avoid scoring the model and stay on the line… I tried and it seemed as if the needle wanted to go everywhere but straight along the line. Any additional tricks I am missing?
What tool are you using? I’ve found a needle in a pin vise jumps around terrible, and I only use it for circles or hard to reach areas. My Bare Metal Foil scriber is better, and my UMM-USA scriber is real easy to stay straight. I almost always use a guide, such as dymo tape, or the edge of a scribing template taped in place.
I saw something on youtube where the guy uses thin tamiya cement to clean out the plastic dust and get rid of the burrs.
Yep. Thats a good trick, and makes the lines look real nice.
I was trying with the needle in the pin-wise, but as you said… it jumps too much. I did use a guide (low tech: a stick taped along the line), but even with that, I did not find it comfortable. I will need to get a more “professional” tool it seems.
I have another fundamental question about scribing: it does make the model look better, but… airplanes don’t have such hard panel lines. In fact, they do their best to blend them in real life, with the exception of control surfaces where some gap is inevitable. Any thoughts on this? Namely, how much scribing and where does it makes the most sense to strike a compromise between faithful reproduction and cool model?
That is a discussion that occurs frequently in these forums. Should a model look exactly like what the prototype looks like, or should it look like what we EXPECT it to look like? I think modelers need to go out in the real world more often and see what airplanes, cars and other modeling subjects really look like, and look at lots of reference photographs very carefully. We have created a bunch of fads in modeling, so that we expect to see what we see in the winning models at contests, not so much what a real vehicle looks like.
Right on, Don!
Well said Don! The phenomenon you allude to has resulted in a whole generation of modelers who would turn their collective noses up at any model kit not featuring recessed panel lines regardless of how accurate that may or may not be. We’ve all seen aircraft models that practically look like a checkerboard with heavily accented lines that have no actual counter-parts in real life. Yet, many will express admiration of these unrealistic looks. It is a somewhat curious situation indeed.
Gary
Using Dymo tape or a pe template as a straight edge will virtually guarantee a nice straight line. As far as panel lines themselves, check your references, and see which panels are really visible, and which aren’t. Don’t scribe them so deep, and don’t use stark washes. The rest is up to personal preference. You can find a picture of a real airplane to support virtually any theory or any type of weathering, so arguing over this matter is a waste. (not implying anyone here is arguing)…