Starship Modeler - Tip o' the Day

Painting panels

[Science!]
Category:

Painting

Submitted By:

Erin Lantz

Tip:

To paint the intricate panels of most B5 ships, I came up with this technique. Paint the model in the overall base color (the Omega would be Light Sea Grey), and let it dry. Draw the lines onto the part with a pencil, drawing lines everywhere you want panels.
Once you've covered the ship in pencil panels, make some templates from post-it notes in the same size as your panels. Make a bunch, they get soggy. Place the post-it template over the panel lines on the model and press them down with a burnisher of some sort. Mix a darker shade of your base color or even darker if you want it dirty, and use an airbrush to mist the upper leading edge corner of each placed template. Try to feather the shade towards the back bottom of the panel. Let it dry for a few minutes before lifting the templates and doing more.
If the panels look too dark, just leave the one you painted as is and let it be an oddball panel. Lighten the shade coat and touch up if neccessary.
Keep going until you've lost your mind or finish it. It's worth the work though, and it's about the only way to paint the B5 style panels.

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Tips database last updated 21 July 2014

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