Technique: Working with Raised Panel Lines

Scott Van Aken's 1:72 High Visibility Hasegawa F-14A Tomcat with raised panel lines. See build article here.

I typically end up with kits with raised panel lines because they are relatively less expensive. Kits with raised panel lines tend to be older molds and tooling than kits with recessed lines so they tend to be less expensive, So if you're modeling on a budget you are likely to encounter them fairly frequently.

This was the case with a 1:72 Hasegawa F-14A Tomcat (High Visibility) model that I recently purchased. I had honestly done no research on the kit and was not aware that it had raised panel lines when I purchased it. I might have made a different decision at the time when I was making the purchase had I known, but it was the cheapest F-14 I could find so I bought it. When I opened the box I was very disappointed and it sat on my shelf for months.

Hasegawa F-14A Kit. Nice kit but comes with raised panel lines.

After rescribing the raised panel lines on a 1:72 Hasegawa F-15C, with very limited success I decided that this time I would use the F-14 project to learn how to work WITH raised panel lines rather than against them.

Of course the biggest problems with raised panel lines are ...

• Loss of detail when sanding joins and cleaning up filler spot.
• Unable to perform weathering techniques such as pin and sludge washes. 

I have been searching around online and have found VERY little information out there on detailing and weathering aircraft with raised panel lines. Only one video and a coupe of links to articles which go into some detail on how to handle them. I wanted to collect them here so that I would have them for reference as I progressed on my F-14 build.

Hopefully you  (and I) can find something useful in this rather limited collection of information.


Playlist Home: Technique: Working with Raised Panel Lines
Number of Videos: 1
Duration of Playlist: 4.5 mins

Additional Resources ...

1/48 Revell B-17F to E Coastal Command Conversion
Buildnotes of a B-17E with raised panel lines. Goes into some explanation of how he dealth with them.

Don't Be Afraid of Raised Panel Lines
Another build article of a 1:72 Me 262B. He goes into some explanation of how he achieved his very nice finish. For me however, particularly when build contemporary Naval aircraft, the weathering seems a bit light. Besides I enjoy the "drama" of a more heavily weathered plane. He also doesn't go into how he handled having to sand around raised panel lines without loosing the previous detail. Perhaps he did lose the detail? I have only scanned the article so far, so I may have missed something.

Shading and Enhancing Panel Lines
This article does not address raised panel lines specifically but offers some direction on pre and post shading which may be used for raised or recessed panel lines alike.

Re-Scribing or drawing on Raised Panel Lines
Great article directly addresses the issue of weathering and highlighting raised panel lines! Finally!!

Video Attributions ...

ModelKitsReview