Finishing Touch Panel Line Problem

Hi,

I am finishing up my model. I painted the body with acyrlic paint. Now, I want to fill in the panel line with black. Usually people say use a thinned paint brush, but what do I do with the smudge? I cant use alcholol or windex to take out the smudge since the alcholol will take out the paint of the body. Should I just use a black pen? although I think black pen is not as nice as paint.

i use thinned enamels for my panellines. If you can easily wipe the "smudge of with some paper. If there some "smudge" after paint has dryed, use a polishing compound to remove it.

For god's sake, don't EVER use black!! :uhoh: Nothing can make a good model look more like a toy than kit chromed wheels or heavy black panel lines. :disappoin

You want a color that's just barely darker then your body color (okay, if the body is very dark blue or something, you can use black)- especially on bright colors like red, yellow or white.

If you painted in acrylics, my favorite was option is ink. Go to an art supply store and get a small bottle each of black and white ink. Mix them together to get a suitable color, and thin with water. Apply it with a small pointed brush and wipe away the excess. It will probably take a couple of applications until you're done, so work slowly and patiently.

And don't try thinned enamels on acrylics- enamel thinner will definately ruin the body paint.

Read this guy's tutoral......he is a fantastic builder, maybe the best.

http://www.italianhorses.net/Tutorials/Panelines/panels.htm

As MPWR said. Don't use just black for panel lines. It will ruin your car! I used to use Gundam markers for panel lines and it ruined my builds...

As for wiping off excess paint, you can use compound afterwards. If the paint you used for panel lines is thin enough, you should just let the paint "flow" through the entire line. This way, you wouldn't need too much work on cleaning up.

If you find that the paint won't flow through the line, It may be because your panel lines are not prepared well before painting. If you scriped the panel lines deep enough, you should be able to have good depth for the good panel lines paint application. Bear in mind that the application of primer, paint or clear will eventually decrease the depth of panel lines.

IMO, thinned flat black looks alright (5 thinner to 1 black ratio). I used it on a white car and it is not really that unrealistic (again that's my opinion). Check out one of the pictures from my recently finished build:

http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/502/488499CIMG0984a.jpg

The panel lines are painted with thinned Tamiya flat black.

Winston

wow thx guys I will get right on it. never though of ink before. Yea I will go with MPWR's method. Great Job!