Hi all im coming upto the finishing stages in building my 1/5 scale Hawker Tempest and its the first time I had tried to build scale so i am wondering how you go about creating panel lines, I have heard of scratching them in and tapping and spraying them but dont know how to do it in full detail.

Any help would be great.

Mick

Hey skyhawk;
I assume you are talking about a wing that's glassed, sanded and ready for a paint job. Get yourself a roll of fine chart tape (graph tape) with about 0.5mm width. After transferring the scale layout of the panel lines onto the wing (top and bottom) with a pencil apply the tape. Now you are ready for a couple of coats of white automotive primer. After the primer has tried apply a third coat just over the tape lines. Let it try over night and pull the tape the next day. You can slightly sand the entire wing carefully with minimum 400m, better 600 wet & dry. Don't sand too much. Now you can either go ahead with an elaborate rivet job or finish your paint job by applying the top coat. The lines will show up very nicely, even after two or three final coats. Hope that helped you. There are other methods, but I found this one very easy to accomplish and the result is stunning.

Hey Skyhawk007,

I have also used the chartpak tape and i was happy with the effect. I would recommend that you use the 1/64" tape, which is the smallest you can get because even at 1/64 or .4mm They are a huge gap in terms of panel lines as compared to the full sized a/c

Another techinque is to use the blunt side os the knife to score the surface. to you start my marking out all the panel lines on the surface, and then gently use the sharp side of the knfe to score a groove onto the surface. then you can either run the knife along he groove a few times or turn the knife over and use the blunt side for a slightly thinker groove.

Where about in briss-vegas are you from?

thanks

Here are some pic's of my 1/7 scale p-51 im working on using the chartpak tape.

I'm sure there will be some more people to give you some mroe ideas. there is more than one way to skin a cat, you just have to find the technique that works best for you.

thanks

I use 1/64" ChartPak tape and shoot a couple of heavy coats of primer over just over the tape, maybe an inch or so either side. Then I carefully wet sand through the primer to reveal the tape before pulling it up. Sanding to reveal the tape makes for a much cleaner edge to your panel lines, IMHO.

Thanks everyone for the help, I live in logan and fly at LARCS, I have looked around for this chartpak tape but have come up with nothing, where have you been getting hold of it?

Chart tape is becoming harder to find since the graphics industry when computer. Here's a link to a place that carries it.

http://www.grafsticktapeandlabel.com/index.htm

Scott

If the plane is already glassed, painted, or covered, you can use the cheap method I used on the planes pictured in my gallery. All I used was a pencil, a black and silver marker, and spray urethane from a can. It took some time, but really gets noticed on the flightline and in the air. Paul