Another panel-lines how-to guide

[David Hingtgen]

http://s96920072.onlinehome.us/tnt1/101-20...kham/tnt122.htm

BTW, http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com is THE place for aicraft modeling.

Of course, I still think all panel-lines are over-done. I prefer his "non pre-scribed" A-4 actually. It's one of those "looks better if done, but impossible to truly do to scale" things. I myself have yet to accent panel lines on a model, will try someday though.

Edited June 22, 2004 by David Hingtgen

[jardann]

That's a great post. Thanks for the link to such good advice. I hadn't seen that website before.

[flyboy]

Thanks for the link.

Excellent article.

I read that he was going to do this write-up, then forgot all about it until it was posted today!

ARC (Aircraft Resource Center) is one of the better aircraft modelling websites out there.

Take a look at this guy's Rafele M if you want to see a really good-looking model of a modern aircraft.

Felix

[neptunesurvey]

That was helpful. Thanks.

[Sundown]

Gotta agree, David. The non-scribed A4 looks tons better and a lot more convincing. Seems modellers too often focus on "Look at meeee! I panel lined! Look! Look!", rather than "Look at meee! I look farking real!"

It's just not that convincing when details that aren't prominent on an actual real life plane are emphasized for detail's sake.

-Al

[Penguin]

I couldn't agree more, Sundown. I've seen way too many modellers get carried away. Once you learn a new skill it's nice to show it off, but not to the detriment of the final display.

I myself have yet to accent panel lines on a model, will try someday though.

Y'know, even though I've learned how to do it, I still apply them only rarely. I've always preferred cleaner-looking kits. I like accenting the details on landing gear and in the wells, and also along flaps and some of the deeper details, but I prefer not to do all the details.

[Mule]

Darkening every single panel line is overkill. I also feel that panel line pre or post shading is a bad idea. On real planes, some panels do have a shading around them, but that is usually because something is leaking between them, or the seam isn't aligned right and a mist of dirt gets caught in the wind shadow. The reason it seems to look good on some models, is that it causes a mottled effect so the surface of the plane isn't all one color, but on closer analysis it just looks wrong. It's become one of the easiest tests for me to tell it a plane in a picture is real or a model.

The best way to determine if a line should be shaded or even visible it to look at pictures of the real thing, or in sci-fi modeling's case, something simmilar.