Hi folks,

I'm about 75% done on my Academy 1/72 Hurricane Mk IIc. Only decaling and weathering remains.

I've painted the underwings matt black, since my plane is 1942 make, and the instruction sheet also says so .

Question is, how do I highlight panel lines against a black background? AFAIK, I can go in for one of these approaches:
1. Scratch out the black in the panel lines with a needle, and leave it as such.
2. Repeat step 1, but also fill in silver paint with the needle.
3. Use diluted light gray acrylic paint with a sludge wash technique?

Help appreciated. TIA.
BP.

This is an area that I have not got into, yet. Partly because I'm unsure of the best approach. Personally I wouldn't scratch the paint out of the panel lines. My thoughts on this have been along these lines; use very dark grey instead of black, and wash with black (to late for that). Paint black and wash with very dark grey, or paint black and wash with a mix of dark grey and burnt umber. Silver or light grey just wouldn't look right IMHO.
Mal

Maybe you could try lightly dry brushing very dark grey over the panel lines just to give a slight tonal change on the panel leaving the recessed panel black. If you do it lightly it could allow the panel lines to show without obviously affecting the black camouflage paint.

One of the guys in the club just finised Tamiya's F-117. He accented the lines with a different sheen. I think he left the main body with just slightly more reflective that the panel lines.
You might try using some very dark gray pastels along the panels.

Well, I'm not actually sure you should accent the panel lines at all. I did a search on google and looked through some images of black painted aircraft I could think of: B-1, B-2, B-52 and F-117 and didn't see any prominent panel lines on black painted aircraft. Maybe a light drybrushing of grey followed by aluminum in the high wear areas would be appropriate. Not sure.

Of these, only the F-117 and maybe the B-2 are black. The B-2 may be a very dark gray, but I'm not sure, having only seen one IRL as it flew at cloud base near Bradley International a few years ago.The others are Gunship gray (FS36118), the standard Air Force color. They look darker because they are often seen against a bright background. On the ground, the color will appear to vary from almost a light gray to very dark gray, depending on the brightness of the day.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your opinions. Will try and let you know !

Cheers,
BP.