Reducing over sized panel lines

[csavaglio]

I was stash browsing and was digging through the Vintage 1/24 P-40. Aside from making all the mistakes of the Trumpeter 1/32 P-40 (shallow cockpit, random raised access panels, etc) they engraved the kit was some really deep and wide panel lines. The remind me of the old Tauro kits.

 

The first thought is to fill with putty and rescribe, but I always have bad luck doing this since the putty tends to chip as you scribe through it. I thought about filling with CA with talc powder, but this ends up pretty hard and difficult to scribe. Another thought was to flood them with Mr. Surfacer, but the result is usually pretty inconsistent.

 

So, I'm here for some advice. What is everyone's method, if there is one, for reducing panel trenches? Honestly, it's the big hurdle on the kit. The rest of it's issues are pretty workable.

 

 

Thanks, guys.

Chris

[automaton]

Hi Chris; The best way I know is applying a fairly generous amount of c.a. glue into the "trench", then laying stretched sprue into it while the glue is still wet. Another bead of c.a. over that, let dry (but not overnight--gets too hard and brittle) before sanding flush and rescribing with a curved etched saw. Don't know if this would work with other types of scribing tools or not. Using stretched sprue of a contrasting color helps highlight where the line is supposed to be (providing it was in the right place to start with.

 

HTH;

 

Automaton

[ladder4boy]

Chris.. thought you might be trying to fill some of those trenchy lines in your F-4! I've found that some of them have a V shape to them where they're really wide at the surface but thin down towards the bottom.. so if you sand down the surface the line will get smaller. If that won't do, then I usually fudge and fill with coats of CA applied capilary style into the panel line.. sand and refill until flush, then scribe right beside it. It's not completely 100% accurate as to panel line placement, but then again, 1/2 a mm to one side or the other is pretty close. and the nice thing about it is that you're still scribing on plastic except for any places where line might cross.

 

just my 2 cents

Jerry

[LSP_Kevin]

Yep, I agree with the stretched sprue idea. While a contrasting colour is ideal, if you use the sprues from the kit in question, you're guaranteed to have identical properties between the kit plastic and the filled panel lines. I thought about doing exactly this with my Matchbox Emil (and still might).

 

Kev

[csavaglio]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I'll have to experiment a bit. I was thinking of spraying multiple layers of primer, sanding off the surrounding areas, leaving the primer in the panel lines, reducing them. It might work well with some high build primer, since there's not much on the surfaces I'm doing that would get lost and sanding between coats.

 

I hesitate to use CA...since I have little luck scribing through it. I use a combination of a UMM razor saw, RB scribing tool, knife blade, and Squadron scribing tool, depending on what, where and the effect I'm after.

 

Your suggestions, gave me another thought......to lay in styrene stock, glued with styrene cement. The panel lines are def. wide enough for .010 square stock to lay in, possibly .020 square. If I can glue it with normal styrene liquid cement, I can sand flush and scribe just as normal.

 

Thank you, guys! I'll update with some progress as I make it. A 1/24 shark mouthed P-40 would be too cool.... at least they didn't include those sadistic metal hinges.

 

Chris

[Cees Broere]

I'm with Jerry,

 

My Hobbycraft Sea Fury has very wide panellines but the plastic is thick enough for

some rigerous sanding, the lines get much thinner at the bottom and sometimes even

dissapear if sanded too heavily, but a bit of rescribing sorts that out. Must be

a matter of taste I think.

 

Cheers

Cees

[csavaglio]

When I get home tonight, I'll have to take a look. I think what makes them so wide looking is that they are wide all the way down, so they have a square cross section. Some parts of the kit are definately worse than others. The vertical fin and fuselage sides, for example, are particularly bad. The horizontal stabs aren't nearly as bad.

 

Some experimenting is definately in order here....

 

C

[ladder4boy]

if they're that wide, i'd go with glueing in some evergreen, letting it dry for a couple of days, and then scribing right down the middle of the evergreen. I use an old dental tool with the hook end on it for 90% of my rescribing.. works well for doing rivets as well.. i just rub the sides on some 1200 grit every now and then to sharpen it up. not so it's a point, but more of a small knife blade.. makes fairly thin panel lines. it's funny how if you threw out 5 different scribing tools on the table, everybody would love a different one.. guess it's what you get used to? Let me know before you start rescribing this sucker tho.. i wanna buy stock in DYMO tape first!

 

Jerry

[MarkS]

I've haven't tried this, but I've heard of some people that cut up left over sprue and dissolve it in liquid glue (like Tenax) to make a thick putty/paste. When used it apparently binds with the kit plastic and dries into solid plastic which can be sanded and scribed just like the original plastic.

 

Mark

[csavaglio]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

 

Looks like using styrene to fill it is gonna be the best route, so it'll scribe well later.

 

The lines are wide, but not as deep. A piece of .010" round rod fits in, but doesn't quite fill it. I think a piece of .020" rod will work better. Square stock wants to fit in diagonally, so it seems like it's too big. I think the rod will soften up and fill the lines well when hit with some Weld-On.

 

Mark,

I have tried disolving styrene scrap into liquid cement to fill with. It works well, and dries into solid plastic, but it does shrink a lot.

 

 

Well, gentlemen, I'm going to give it a shot when I want to fry my mind on it. BTW, I'm guessing I won't use an entire roll of DYMO.....even in 1/24, a P-40 isn't a real big airplane. It's still quite a bit smaller than the Phantoms we're all working on....and it's a whole lot smaller than the 1/48 Testors SR-71 I scribed about 6 months ago.

 

Chris

[Cat_baloo]

Hello, gentlemen. Much intrigued by the topic since I've been struggling with OCD in re: cavernous panel lines for years. Hate the huge trenches, in any scale. I s/pose that's why I take forever to build anything since I have to prep the entire airframe before I start.

In the process I've experimented w/ all techinques mentioned, and some out to left field. At present I'm involved w/ doing this very thing to the big Revell 'Cat and Airfix' big Mustang. On the Revell 'Cat I've been using the melted styrene w/ tape to mask the lines to limit the mess.

The styrene has two benefits: once set it holds the exact properties of the base plastic, in that it scribes well, and you can use contrasting colours to guage precisely how much you need to sand to achieve a flush surface. F'rinstance, I've melted the black stand from the Airfix Spit kit to apply on Revell's grey plastic.

 

As stated, putty can be too brittle or soft, and chips easily. CA is tricky and dangerous. Either the thin variety w/ filler or the thick gel become much harder than the surrounding plastic and, therefore, difficult to sand evenly. Ask me how I know this. . .

 

For scribers I use a No 11 Xacto, a splinter pick w/ two tips - standard "pin" tip and a hooked tip - and a dental tool w/ a curved and tapered blade sharpened into a gouge-type point. The secret is how to scribe.

 

I'll put together some pics and run a commentary to show WIP of my method.

 

If nothing else it'll be an exercise in editorial!

 

Regards

 

Ross

[csavaglio]

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of using CA for filling, other than mixing it with talcum powder (makes it thicker and makes it far less brittle and easier to sand) for injector pin marks.

 

I glued some .020" styrene rod into the trenches last night on the vertical fin since it's a fairly easy area to test. When i get around to it, I'll sand it flush and see how it looks after scribing.

 

I really like Radu's scribing tool. I used to use a Squadron tool for most work, but you have to be very consistent about what angle you hold the tool to the surface to get even lines, which is hard when working on curved surfaces or hard to reach places.

 

My problem with using a pick or an Exacto knife is that they don't remove plastic. They cut into the surface and leave a ridge on either side that has to be sanded off. The line it leaves behind is V shaped. Purpose made scribing tools should give you a little curly bit of plastic as you scribe through, leaving a nice square cross section. Once I switched to a purpose scribing tool, I haven't looked back.

 

Like everything else, maybe more so as Jerry said, scribing tools are personal preference.

 

I guess I'm off and limping. Right now, I'm just experimenting on it. I think this one's going to be a backburner project where I do a little here and there until it's ready to be built.

 

Chris

[tbell]

Chris,

 

Another possible approach would be to spray a couple of heavy coats of Mr. Surfacer 500 or 1000 (thinned with lacquer thinner) and then sand the surface back to the plastic. I did this on my 1/48 Trumpeter Sea Fury and the panel lines ended up looking much better.

 

Cheers,

Tony