A reader’s tip in the May '11 issue suggested using a silver Sharpie over seam lines to check for flaws in filling and sanding. It works very well. However, I also used a black Sharpie and discovered another tip.
After cleaning the ink off with alcohol, the Sharpie left black residue down in the bottom of the scribed panel lines. I didn’t clean this out figuring I would do so after I was done sanding. I started sanding the seams and found that where I had sanded down into the scribed panel lines I could still see where the lines were due to the black residue. Even where lines were almost completely sanded away, I could see where the lines had been. This made rescribing the panel lines much easier.
So instead of guessing/estimating the location of sanded off panel lines, I could actually still see their location and rescribe them with ease.
Neat idea. Be careful with Sharpies though. I had a bad experience with them. I thought it would be an excellent short cut to use a Sharpie to pre-shade an airplane or two. Every thing was going well at first, the base coat went down nicely and the pre-shade looked great. Then, went I put a dull coat over the model it seemed to bring the Sharpie ink to the surface! It looked as though some one had drawn black ink all over my model. Furthermore, even if you don’t use a dull coat, the Sharpie can still eventually bleed through the paint. I was using Tamiya Acrylics…don’t know if an enamel paint can withstand the effects to a better degree but I will not bring a Sharpie any where near my models any more.
Thanks for the info on Sharpie bleed through. Sounds like I better experiment a little before I go on. I cleaned all the ink off except for what was left in the scribed line. However, it seems I better clean out the remaining residue before I start to paint.
Sure thing Arnie. Ever since it happened to me (essentially ruined 3 models this way) I’ve preached against it. If the ink is in the panel recesses it may not effect your build, but who knows.
HERE is an older thread (one that I wish I had seen before my mishaps) that shows the effects of Sharpie usage.