Forgive my ignorance, but a lot of WIP pics that pop up around here seem to show join lines with some sort of black marking running their length, almost as though they were traced with a sharpie.
What’s that all about?
humm , not sure… but here are my 2 schools of thought…
1: some may mark the edges with a color to make sure the 1/2’s are aligned during gluing, giving a referance…no color, no missalignment…
2:, interior colors are sprayed on, and some is on the eges, when their glued, some edge shows, of the overspray on the join seem shows just a bit…
Sometimes I will brush a line of paint down the length of a join to enhance any errors or seam work that needs to be taken care of. They seem to stand out more once you get a bit of paint on 'em. This way, you don’t waste a paint session to find out you missed something nasty that needs further sanding.
One last thing…don’t use a sharpie! The ink in the sharpie will bleed through your paint therefore leaving your model lookingt as though it was traced with a sharpie…found this out the hard way by attempting to preshade with one.
p38jl I think your second option sounds the most likely. Though the 1st sounds like a good idea, i might give that a try, not sure if others already do that.
As i don’t prime my kits, if i am not sure about a seam, i will usually run paint over it, though i usually use white.
Pretty sure it’s not interior overspray, since:
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whenever I see this it’s usually running the entire length of a join, say the dorsal seam of a fuselage from the cockpit all the way back to the tail. Unless it’s a bomber or the odd kit like the Zvezda La-5 where you’re literally building the interior structure as well, I don’t see the point of painting that far back.
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it’s usually black, and I don’t know many aircraft whose interiors are uniformally black vs. interior green, grey, etc.
I guess painting to check the seam makes some sense. I did the same last night with some Mr Surfacer on my Dauntless…but I don’t see the utility of using black versus, say, grey or green. Seems it might hide some contrasty areas.
Here’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about:
I would say that this dude is using it as a guide for sanding… when he sands down his putty, if the marked line disappears, he’s at the surface, saves on oversanding and loosing molded details…??..
It doesn’t say in the tute, or at least after I read it 2x, i didn;'t see it,
I read the full article on the build as well but it didn’t give a hint as to what that black line is. P38jl may be on to something though. That is an interesting idea.
Ps… the Sharpie comment… !! ya… be carefull using a sharpie… they bleed,run, I messed up a Hughes, Spruce Goose ,beautiful silver spray jobm trying to fix a booboo with a sharpie… it sits as a hanger queen… uggh…
Yes, I’ve got a B-25J in the same state and an A-7 that I was able to salvage.
ya, my Goose came out sweet except for that… it was the wing walk lines on the port wing… looked good untill the clear hit it… then…ewwww… I was so PO’d…[:@][bnghead]
Note to self - don’t use Sharpies on model kits!
Yeah, that was the problem. You don’t know you’ve messed it all up until you spray the clear coat, then it brings it all out, quite starkly I might add.
I mixed the A-7 by sealing it with a clear coat and then repainting. Painting all over again isn’t ideal, but it saved the model. I also noticed in experimenting to save the B-25 that Model Master’s dull coat will remove both Tamiya Acrylic paint from an unprimed model AND the offending sharpie if you wipe it off while the dull coat is still wet. So I may soak a rag in dull coat and strip the paint. Time consuming but it’ll hopefully save what was otherwise a nice looking model.
I’m not sure either, although P38 seems to have a good answer. You might shoot Swanny a PM and ask him directly. He is a member here. Or go over to his site and ask.