panel lines for a white car

[myunghoon]

i've already read instructions on how to make panel lines for a car, but i thought i'd ask a couple of questions if you guys don't mind.

i'm doing the mobil nsx kit right now, and i want to create panel lines for it, but i was wondering if i'm supposed to use black or gray. on italianhorses's site, he says use a gray wash. and on this site, i saw the white wrx painted with black panel lines. the black, looks pretty good, i'm just wondering if gray would be a bit more subtle?

and just to make sure...how much thinner for how much paint? half the paint? two times?
thanks

[freakray]

The grey is better and looks more correct.

About 2 parts thinner to 1 part paint.

[iceblend]

I'd say go with grey for a more realistic feel.

As for thinning the paint, try to thin to the consistency of the "dirty water" after washing your small brush.

[myunghoon]

haha, thanks. those were some quick replies.

does anyone know the color code for which tamiya paint would suit the lines the best?

and oh yeah...thinner is pretty cheap, right? it's such a big bottle...i don't need all of it.

thanks again.

[Bas Carwash]

About the thinner, you can also buy a small bottle. Like the paint bottles. I got them both. I always use the small bottle and fill it up with the big one. It's cheap and very handy to work with. I'm not sure if grey would do it. Maybe you should try black thinned so you get the dirty water effect like iceblend said. A very thin layer of it will do. Just my in this...

[Cychalen]

I just started painting panel lines on my models and IMO grey works the best on a white car.
You do not need to get grey paint. Just mix some black and white.

[Macdaddy4738]

gray would be the best for realism...if your going for a cartoony look then black. You can also use gundam markers instead of a paint wash...they have them on HLJ

[freakray]

Tamiya's XF-66 is a good shade of grey for a wash.

[StephenDeli]

You can find grey gundam markers which produce a very neat and clean looks. They take a little less time than the wash and is easier!

[blueboost]

I would recommend a (clear )grey acrylic (smoke?). that way any runover, or excess can be wiped off without possibly damaging the enamel paint on the body. or vise versa.

correct me if I'm not making sense.

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Gray works well on white, I just custom mix it. Worked well, but can be a bit messy and the lines aren't always uniform.

However, I now use disposable Pigma Micron pigment liners, these are cheap disposable rapidographs for technical drawings. The .005 size works well, and I do the panel lines in between coats of paint...paint a few coats of white (or a color), let dry, wetsand paint in preparation for next coats, apply the panel lines (the pens are similar to Gundam pens, but don't have the tendency to run). Apply a few more coats of paint...the paint is translucent enough that the panel lines are darker than the surrounding area. It's clean, effective, and dead-simple to do, and I've now done 8 cars w/this technique and I'm 100% sold on it. Black panel lines, I've done them before and I think they look too harsh on many light colors. Subtlety is key to visual perfection, at least on my models! Even though my models are never, ever going to be perfect .

[myunghoon]

yeah...i have smoke paint. how would that work?

[primera man]

Do what you think looks the best in your view

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

As Pman said, do what you feel looks best to you. That should involve some experimentation...try out some of these techniques, and you'll quickly learn what works best for you.

Here's a picture of a white car using the paint/black pen panel line/paint over ink layering technique I described in my previous post:


What's nice about this is the panel lines are all uniform. Using thinned paint or smoke paint may give you non-uniform color depth to your panel lines...one reason that black panel lines are easy to do and look good to many people.

Here's a model painted white, w/gray panel lines. Hard to tell from the photo, but these panel lines give the car a good appearance, but up close they're not uniform in color depth. I didn't know about the new technique until after I completed this (I also got a better set of scribing tools since this car, to deepen panel lines before painting:

[panzer360]

Originally Posted by ZoomZoomMX-5

As Pman said, do what you feel looks best to you. That should involve some experimentation...try out some of these techniques, and you'll quickly learn what works best for you.

Here's a picture of a white car using the paint/black pen panel line/paint over ink layering technique I described in my previous post:


What's nice about this is the panel lines are all uniform. Using thinned paint or smoke paint may give you non-uniform color depth to your panel lines...one reason that black panel lines are easy to do and look good to many people.

Here's a model painted white, w/gray panel lines. Hard to tell from the photo, but these panel lines give the car a good appearance, but up close they're not uniform in color depth. I didn't know about the new technique until after I completed this (I also got a better set of scribing tools since this car, to deepen panel lines before painting:

How do you deep panels lines? Is a knife with blades number 11 good for the job putting the knife sideways?

Can i use this to make the panel lines:

Gunze Sangyo Gundam Marker Acrylic Grey (Thick) # GS12



Yes, i know this is from 2004 but there are users here that still post in the forum since then