Masks And Panel Lines

[bluntie]

Hi all, Mossie and Sisko asked me about a couple of things so ill do my best to answer them here.  first off masks,this was something i had seen other people doing,but had allways thought it would be too hard or too complicated,infact it was so easy i dont know why i had never tried it before now.all the markings on the MIG are sprayed,i found the type of font needed in the office thingie on the computer and after a little bit of experimenting got the proportions where i needed them and printed of a couple of sheets,then cut the lettering out and taped it on top of a 50mm peice of tamiya tape on a 6x6 kitchen tile.                              
       
then with a steel rule and a new #11 blade cut out the letters,the first couple were a bit wonky but the last couple were spot on first go,i used the large piece of tape as a stencil rather than the letters cut from it as otherwise it would have interfeared with the pre shading. just make sure the tape edges are burnished down tight and flat,i used the back of the blade to push the tape into the panel lines to make sure no paint crept underneath and sprayed lightly thinned XF1 at low pressure.                                                                                              
Panel lines, i am very lucky to have a good friend who is a draftsman and he passed on to me some of his old drafting pens and nibs as most of his work is now done by Autocad and other exotic computer gizzmo's.now these things are not cheep,the nibs are around $35-$40 aust .so a pen,nib,and ink would go close to $60 aust.but looked after properly a set should last many many years.              
i have tried to demonstrate on this ME110 foselege ,the first 7 panel lines are all done showing the range of shades from darkest to lightest ,the last 2 panel lines show a' stain'type effect as you would see around fuel fillers and engine areas and a 'streaky' effect as you would see around hinge areas and such.          
 
A .25 nib is the perfect size for this,and any other detailing,its great for doing instrument panels with raised detail too,paint the gauge faces gloss enamel white then dab the ink in,being water based the ink sinks to the lowest part of the detail leaving the white raised parts exposed. to get the effects above depends on how long the ink is allowed to dry,the darkest line was allowed to set for 5-6 mins while the lightest was left about 30secs then gently wiped of with a cotton bud,some as the streaky one.just drag the ink in the direction of airflow.the stain was made by lightly wetting either side of the panel line with a cotton bud to let the ink spill each side,again its easy to vary the shade of the stain by the amount of time its left to dry.i made this one quite dark so it is easy to see.  like i said its not cheap but after breaking lots of bits of lots of models while scrubbing away at the traditional panel line technique i find this to be much more gentile and precise i dont have to handle the model half as much or worry about breaking through the top coat and if it looks like poo-poo (with an english accent) theres time to sort it out with a q-tip.  ok so there you go!          
         
There be the beastie ,and a close up.