How do you paint/apply the detailing in joins ?

[Van Halen]

Hi there, i would like to know how you all go about producing the black/dark lines that resemble the joins and cracks in car detail.

It's hard to explain so simply on this Corolla, the black lines for around the doors etc, how do you produce them ?

-Thanks in advance

[randx0]

one way would be to use paint that has been thinned down alot get some on a brush and carefully apply at a corner let cappilary action do the work for you wipe away excess paint right away it will take some practice but a little patience should get good results in no time. there are other methods but this one should be a good starting point. one more thing to consider some recommend using the same color as the body that has been darkened with black.

Edited June 1, 2010 by randx0

[Harry P.]

The trick is NOT to apply a solid black line over the last color coat... that always winds up looking very toylike and unrealistic, because the lines are almost always too thick (too wide) and much too stark and black.

Bob Downie has a great technique for getting the lines "just right"... maybe he'll see this and provide a better explanation. but basically what he does is paint the car as usual, then add the black lines using a Micron-type pen with black ink (or some similar pen with a fine tip and liquid, flowing ink, like a Rapidograph draftsman's pen... NOT a ball point or marker), then adding another coat or two of thinned-down body color over that. This makes the black lines less "black" and you wind up with a very realistic panel line... dark enough to look like an actual open seam, but not too dark as to look fake.

[Tony T]

I have tried a couple of things - One is a very fine marker after paint. I found it too dark. I will be trying the black marker before paint to see if it give me results I like better.

Another way I've seen somewhere was to use a thinned darker shade of the same colour (dark blue for a medium blue paint) thinned and flowed into the panel separation line. Makes it more like a shadow.

Here's a recent example of a marker used after paint.

Edited June 1, 2010 by Tony T

[Van Halen]

thanks so much for the great answers, I think I'll go with the 'wash' approach, the colour of the car will be a dark gunmetal, so i think im going to use a black wash and mix in really slight silver to give it the "darker-than body colour" you said about and keeping it metallic, as it is a pretty dark gunmetal.

cheers

[MyBradKeselowski]

I sometimes use a black Sharpie... (fine tip of coarse)