(I’m a noob so correct any inaccuracies I may present [:)])
I’m getting the feeling that kits/brands with raised panel lines are thought of as either lower quality or a pain in the butt nuisance due to the need to rescribe the lines. My question is: how do you know before opening the box which kits have raised and which have proper recessed panel lines? Are there modellers out there who simply will not buy kits/brands out of principle due to the hassle of rescribing the whole plane?
Generally the older ones. There’s a good site called Scalemates that usually has a pretty accurate timeline of a kit. They’ll indicate when the kit was originally issued, and when it was either reboxed, retooled, or distributed under another brand name.
There’s been plenty of discussion about this subject. There’s a concensus that recessed is better than raised, but I personally would qualify that. Some old kits have recessed lines that are a scale inch or so wide.
A lot has to do with scale, too. If 1/72 is your preference, there really aren’t panel lines in the surface. That means either filling them in or sanding them off. The latter is much easier.
At larger scales, raised lines become more apparently incorrect as the scale gets larger, while recessed ones get smaller and therefore less apparent.
Most aircraft, esp. anything WW2 or more recent, don’t really have physical panel lines that have any dimension to them.
Rescribing is something best left for when you’ve advanced your skills (I’m not up to it).
It’s pretty easy to put a lot of time into something that would have looked better if you hadn’t bothered.
Some of the older kits with raised panel lines are not that bad. For a good price you can get an older Hasegawa kit with raised panel lines and it will build up very nice. They are great kits to learn on or experiment with- and they look very nice on the shelf!
I don’t rescribe the whole airplane. Rescribing is limited to where a panel line was lost in seam work. For me at least, that’s mostly on the underside of the airplane and a little on the top of the front fuselage. And once the paint is on, unless you ran your finger over the line, you would never know it was raised and scribed.
Just in my opinion, if the parts fit well, raised panel lines are not a problem.
This is one of the Hasegawa kits, raised panel lines, but under $10. When you need a fun build!
The older Monogram and Revell kits have raised panel lines. However, most earlier WWII aircraft had overlaping panel seams on the wings and fuselages, so raised panel lines on the models are not a big deal. Later WWII airplanes (P-51 and P-47) did not have overlapping panels except in isolated locations. Following is a photo of a B-24J with overlapping panel seams and an insane number of rivets. If the raised panel lines bother you, you can lightly sand them, but I do not think that they should be removed.
Raised panel lines on jet planes would be incorrect. Following is an F-86 with flush panel seams:
Revell makes an older 1/48 F-86 with raised panel lines eventhough the box art clearly shows recessed panel lines. Hasegawa makes a newer 1/48 F-86 with recessed panel lines. Monogram also makes a B-58 Hustler with raised panel lines, which is incorrect.
In general, the boxes of older kits usually do not clearly indicate what type pf panel lines are on the models. Looking on the Internet may help.
I’ll offer you this advice: Disabuse yourself of the notion that recessed panel lines are always correct, and raised panel lines are always incorrect. It depends on the subject. Sometimes a raised panel line on the model gives you an accurate depiction of the seam along a panel line for that particular aircraft. And sometimes, a recessed panel line might not be accurate, again, for the particular aircraft. Same goes for raised rivets or recessed rivets. If you’re concerned about or striving for accuracy, then I recommend doing your research first, and then weighing what you find in your purchase decision.
In the end, build what you want, the way you want to build it.
To say nothing about the stressed surface of the aluminum skin. Someone who really wanted to make this kit look accurate would want to replicate that look, too.
I second Baron, don’t get tangled up in "accuracy"until you hanle the basics, fit, seams paint application, decals, the rest will come later. Research is big, there is a site called cybermodeler.com that has reviews of ALMOST every kit produced it seems pretty fair and balanced.
If you see a subject you want to do, do it don’t worry about raised or recessed panel lines. Odds are if you pay a ton of money for a top brand kit just for the panel lines, someone WILL tell you the cheaper kit is more accurate.
It is a hobby, have fun, learn, improve, but most of all JUST HAVE FUN.
No I think you misunderstood. In 1/72 scale the panel lines,are so small that you really shouldn’t see them. This is,a raised panel line kit. Can hardly see them from this distance
Knowing that there’s an exception to every general rule, aircraft with metal skins that are in any way modern, dont really have panel lines that are perceptible by texture. If you get up close to a metal aircraft, you’ll see a very tight joint between skin panels.
Newer kits come with fine recessed panel lines. Assuming those are accurate, they can be left along. Some new kits, and a lot of good older kits, have finely raised panel lines. Those look fine too.
There’s a skill you can develop with those. Take a very sharp pencil and during the weathering stages, very carefully draw a line along the bottom of the line on one side or the other.
In my experience, as has been mentioned above, rescribing lines is best left for either repairing areas after sanding, where it would be obvious that they were deleted, or around stuff like access panels and doors that you want to highlight.
And as also said, finding the right model of the subject is usually the higher priority. Then you go about fixing what needs it.
You can and always should do your research online. There are some good reviews there.
Most aircraft kits of pre mid ‘80s vintage will have raised panel lines. Recessed panel lines starting coming into vogue around that time. Although there are some 60’s era Revell 1/32 kits with a (correct) mixture of raised and recessed detail where appropriate.
Like was said above, since you’re self admitted novice builder, work on the basics of assembly and master them. In all honesty, for true accuracy, most panel lines, raised or recessed, are overscale. At least in 1/72 and 1/48. And then there are aircraft like the P-51 and Me-262 that had their panel lines puttied and sanded during the assembly process prior to painting. So… no panel lines. Even the NMF Mustangs had their wings panel lines puttied, sanded, and lacquered. But model companies give us rivets and panel lines for accuracy, recessed and raised.
The poster child for wrinkled panels has to be the B-52. In the air the stresses tighten up the skin, but sitting on the ground the side of the fuselage (especially under the wing) looks like aluminum foil that has been rolled up tight and then unrolled. I’ve never seen a kit of that bird with those wrinkles so you can display it as sitting on the tarmac.
