darkening panel lines

[my80malibu]

In the New issue of MCM Marcos Cruz showed the panel lines darkened. Can anyone tell how this is done?

[clovis]

Look in the tutorial section of the forum.

He wrote an excellent tutorial on this topic. The thread is pinned at the top right now.

[Harry P.]

In the New issue of MCM Marcos Cruz showed the panel lines darkened. Can anyone tell how this is done?

He tells you how right there in the article! He scribes the panel lines deeper and flows a black wash into them before primer and paint.

[Harry P.]

No offense meant to Marcos, but scribing the panel lines is a little risky... there's always the chance your scribing tool jumps out of the groove and mars the body surface. Plus, how deep is deep enough?

There's another way to get the same look that doesn't require any scribing at all. I saw a technique very much like this posted by Bob Downie quite a while ago, and it's really clever: Paint the body the usual way, then flow a black wash into the panel lines. Then shoot a final color coat that's been thinned 50-50 with clear, or just color that's been thinned down. That final thinned-down color coat takes away the harshness of the solid black lines and leaves very realistic looking panel lines. If the panel lines are still too black, just shoot another thinned color coat. The only catch is that you need an airbrush to do this technique.

[my80malibu]

I will look at the tutorial. I used Detailer Black wash to darken the panel lines on my Oldsmobile. I like the way Marcos did his becuase, it looked liked the procedure used actually bled through the paint, like the way Ink does, so it gets toned down while still being visable after its painted. With the Detailer wash. The Panel lines were covered up by the primer some.

[Art Anderson]

No offense meant to Marcos, but scribing the panel lines is a little risky... there's always the chance your scribing tool jumps out of the groove and mars the body surface. Plus, how deep is deep enough?

There's another way to get the same look that doesn't require any scribing at all. I saw a technique very much like this posted by Bob Downie quite a while ago, and it's really clever: Paint the body the usual way, then flow a black wash into the panel lines. Then shoot a final color coat that's been thinned 50-50 with clear, or just color that's been thinned down. That final thinned-down color coat takes away the harshness of the solid black lines and leaves very realistic looking panel lines. If the panel lines are still too black, just shoot another thinned color coat. The only catch is that you need an airbrush to do this technique.

Harry,

Bob got it pretty right with that technique. I've seen it in person, and have tried it--make for a much more realistic appearance. More below.

Art

[Art Anderson]

In the midst of answering Harry's post above, I had to walk up the street to Walgreen's to pick up a few prescription refills, and I decided to look more closely at cars in their parking lot. This is what I noticed (and I've noticed it before, just never thought about writing about it):

First of all, unlike most model car kit bodies, "panel lines" on a real car don't have "knife edge sharp" edges to them, as the sheet metal is rolled into the edge, not cut sharply off (particularly true with doors, as the door skin is rolled under, crimped and spot welded by resistance welding to the inner door structural stamping just inside and "underneath" the outside surface we see when looking at any car on the street, in a garage, or at a car show). In many cases, particularly around doors, the inner "framing" around the door openings (upper and lower sills, the B-post (and of course the C-post of a 4dr) the painted surfaces are visible in the "bottom" (if you will) and clearly show through to the outside, and in the right light, you can see the color of those underlying structures through the "door lines".

With lighter colors, and most certainly with lighter or brighter metallic colors, the edges of panel lines, when viewed at shallow, or "oblique" angles can actually show up brighter than the ajacent exterior surfaces. This is due to the edges of doors, hoods, deck lids having a rounded, or "rolled" appearance, and certainly the edges of front and rear quarter panels have the same rounded appearance in these areas! By running my finger along those edges (no car alarms were set off, no automobiles were injured!) I determined that the edges of those sheet metal panels have a cross-section radius of anywhere from 1/8" (very close to 3mm) to as much as 3/16", which alters the effect of sunlight reflecting back into my eyes. I was particularly struck by the appearance of a bright metallic red B-post on a circa 1999 Oldsmobile Silhouette mini-van--the B-post, which was about an inch behind the exterior door surfaces, actually appeared brighter than the surrounding door sheet metal!

On cars built prior to the late 1970's, when the transition from 20-gauge mild steel sheet metal (which had been used to construct car bodies beginning about 1931-32), the "rolled" appearance of panel edges was a good bit more shallow, perhaps as much as 5/32" diameter, due to the nature of mild steel, which fractured slightly as the surface stretched upon tight bending or rolling. In addition, the "overlapping" door skins stood a good bit farther out from the underlying structural members, making for a "deeper" panel line in appearance. Also, panel lines on modern, 21st Century car bodies are much narrower, often not much more than 1/8" around doors, alongside hoods and decklids (due to the greater precision afforded by computer-designed stamping tooling, and the thinner, high carbon sheet steel used today. On cars from the late 20's through into the late 1970's, panel lines in some cases could be, and often were, as wide as 1/4 inch, sometimes even more, and they were anything but uniform on mass produced automobiles. Couple that with the wider spacing between the various exterior surfaces of those older cars, and more light was admitted into the "lines", which also tends to "soften" the contrast between light and dark.

So, it gets more interesting: Just how do I soften those lines on a 1/25 scale plastic model body shell, just a tad, to allow for the effects I mention, but not so much as to make the model look something like a Palmer Plastics Company reject? Tough call, I think, but the whole idea has got me thinking, especially as I am working with opening doors on the '37 Ford pickup kit right now. I'll be softening up the edges of the door skins, and the surrounding cab sheet metal surfaces to approximate the effect I looked at just 30 minutes ago.

Art

[Harry P.]

Interesting take, Art.

Just one thing to remember for builders in general... that solid black panel line look that some guys do by running black paint or black ink into the panel lines as a last step after painting makes for a very unrealistic and "toy-like" appearance. The panel lines on a real car are NOT solid black (unless the car is black, in which case the whole issue of panel lines doesn't matter anyway). Generally you want the lines to have a slightly darker color tone than the rest of the body, and that's where Bob's technique shines.

[Steven Zimmerman]

As per Art's observation, I scribe my door lines more deeply, and I carefully drag a folded piece of 600 grit wet or dry through the lines, to soften , or 'round' the edges....Been doing this for 20 years !...'Z'

[Blown03SVT]

... and the debate ensues

[W-409]

The easiest way I've found out is to use Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color. Very easy to use and it's available in different colors. Great stuff, just touch the panel lines with the brush that is attached to the top of that bottle and the liquid goes nicely all around the panel line. Easy and gives good results, here's a Chevy Van where I just did the panel lines.

[Deathgoblin]

I did the panel lines on my police Charger with a grey brush pen over the white paint. just wipe off the excess and it looks awesome.

[Blown03SVT]

IMHO, with the slight deepening of the panel lines a highlighting with black or dark grey before prime and paint does add the slight deepening effect. The roll of the panel that should be there is sort of naturally there after the scribing and block sanding process when readying for primer and color. I do agree that some kits may have deep enough lines to highlight the way that is described by Bob downies technique. Some kits do not have deep enough panel lines, which tends to lend the Marco's Cruz way a better alternative. I do agree whole heartly (as I am guilty of doing it) of darkening the lines in black after paint which makes it look like the panel lines are drawn on.

[Jeremy Jon]

I always like to mix my own accent paint, and mix with the body color to tint, then airbrush along the lightly scribed (just enough to clean them up) panel lines, before painting the body its self

Edited July 17, 2013 by Jeremy Jon