I will be starting a kit in the very near future and wanted to know how to add panel lines and rivet heads and being fairly new..what is pinking tape and what is it used for?

Thanks in advance
Bob

I cant understand why nobody has answered you...here it is./...the pinking tape went over all seams and over the ribs in the wing,, "rib stiching" on fabric planes...such as the cub...wings flex and so does the fuse,,,so it helped with rubbing a hole in it as well... just made it more reliable....as far as our models go...heres what i do and it works good...if your painting your plane...use elmers wood glue and put some talic powder in it to thick'n,"to thick and wont work..to thin and youll end up with rivs the size of a basketball..hehehehe"..find a old needlevalve out of an engine youll never use again...blunt the head with a hammer and dip into the mix and "dot" the rivs on....its easy,,,but does take a long time...as far as the panel lines primer your plane sand and do what ever it takes to get ready for paint....put one or two coats on till your satified with the paint coverage,,,,let dry,,"over night"...get some "wetsand" paper real fine and sand plane down...all over...get some drafting tape...real fine...and place your panel lines on...make sure the panels are where you want...the best effect i have found is to spray a clear coat over the plane,,,let tack up,,then with a #11 blade pull the tape...the lines will look faded and it looks like the panels are raised.....hope this helps and good luck...if your putting panel lines on as well as the rivs,,,do your panel lines first, then do the rivs by adding some color to your mix...if there a little off...trust me...they look better....have a great day...Rod

Another method for panel lines is to mask off (this is very time consuming) all but the area for a certian panel and apply one coat of paint. Then unmask that panel and do another. This method gives the appearance of seperate "Panels" . As I said this method is very time consuming and is more expensive (you use a lot of tape) The method that Rod suggested (using drafting tape) works well indeed, as does his method for adding rivets. Another method for adding flush rivets is to take a piece of brass tubing (use the appropriate size) and dull the end with sandpaper (no burrs) and lightly press into the painted surface. This gives the illusion of a flush rivet. There are stick on rivet decals that can be purchased from some of the suppliers. They also give the illusion of a rivet head. That is the wonderful thing about this hobby. We are all striving to become masters of illusion.

Hope this helps. [8D]

Bill

Thank you, I will see how this works and go from there......

Hi,

I have to admit I have not used this system - yet, but the folks that produce Flight Metal also offer a riveting system that looks really interesting. Here is the link.
http://www.scaleaero.com/flitemetal.htm

Steve