Rescribing panel lines

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Sorry if this subject has been covered in detail before but I couldnt find a thread on it. I would be interested to know the following

1 How many of you rescribe your panel lines

2 Is it best done before you paint and start joining the parts together

3 Do you always need to use a stencil or straight edge for support or does the re scribe tool stay in the grooves if you try free hand.

any advice please or a redirect to an existing thread would be appreciated

Steve

[BarryW]

Hi Steve.

I do it before painting, but then sfter a primer coat you will often see flaws that need addressing by filling, sanding, re-scribing or all three. A key job of the primer coat is to show these things up. In short I do it before and again after priming.

I use a thick plastic sticky tape to guide the scriber. The tape used in those old labelling machines is ideal.

[Guest]

Also add to Barry's great advice. There are, & I think John does them in the shop, templates for line circles elipses squares & you name it all different sizes.

Not expensive & great. If you have not had a go at this before practice on some plastic. I practice every time I have to do this. Needs a lot of care & patience the depth of the groove & also the width of the groove to match the existing grooves. Found making a pre line with a sharp morton blade knife gives a good guide for the making of the groove. Also found that the groove is not as smooth as the original & I have coated the groove with Tamiya thin Cement which neatly slightly melts the plastic in the groove giving a clean panel line.

Laurie

[Guest]

I hate re-scribing. Hate, hate hate - do you hear me???? HATE!

[HAWKERHUNTER]

I have done a bit of patching up with my rescribing knife on some larger scale kits but I am just about to start building a 1/72 scale Revell Tornado and thought about rescribing the whole thing before I started to put it together so that I would have a more defined panel line to paint after all the priming and painting process. I must admit the process seems daunting as the panel lines are so small at this scale. Does the scale of the model affect your decision to rescribe?

Steve

[stona]

Does the scale of the model affect your decision to rescribe?Steve

It's not just the scale Steve. You've touched on an area which can engender heated debate! The panels on real aircraft are off relatively light gauge material and may be let in,butt,or overlap. Whatever they do and assumming that the join is not then taped and/or puttied and sanded the gaps or overlaps are very small. On a scale model,even at 1/32 or 1/24 they are too small to mold in scale and so are invariably overscale. Modellers have picked up on this and by using washes and shading made a feature of the panel lines. This is an ARTISTIC enterprise not a realistic one. Done well and subtely it may enhance a model but many (including myself) feel it is often waaaay overdone.

So it's up to you. If you want to make a feature of the panel lines then by all means rescribe them but I guarantee that the lines on a 1/72 model are already overscale.

Personally I'm with Snapper! I only rescribe when I have to replace lost detail or when a kit is just too badly wrong for me to leave it alone. It is one of my least favourite jobs.

Cheers

Steve

[HAWKERHUNTER]

thanks for all your pointers guys, some food for thought. I just get annoyed when I try to run some wash into a panel line and find that it wont accept it because its become clogged with paint. I do like the look of a model when you can get the panel lines filled with a wash but I take on board what you have pointed out Steve and probably wont rush in to rescribe unless its neccessary

Steve