My first model was a SnapTite F-14 Tomcat. Months later I am looking to take another stab at building an F-14 Tomcat. This time not a SnapTite kit but Hasegawa's 1:72 High Visibility kit. With it's raised panel lines it's a kit I have had floating around for a while and been avoiding, but have decided to take a shot at learning how to work with raised panel lines rather than sanding them down and scribing new lines.
Not the Super Tomcat as documented by Genessis Models in their great tutorial series I have collected, this playlist and resources are more generic and assembled from a number of different sources.
Playlist Home Page:Model Build: F-14 Tomcat Number of Videos: 22 Duration of Playlist: approx. 7 hours
Links to other online resources ...
Narita Family
Multiple award winning model builder provides insight and step-by step instruction on how he built his Tamilya 1:32 scale, F-14 Tomcat diorama. Unbelievable results. Great for inspiration and reference.
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.
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.
The first kit I actually completed since 'kick-starting' this model obsession was a Revell 1:72 scale Snap-Tite F-14 Tomcat. This was great as it allowed me to focus largely not on the build but on what interested me the most; painting and weathering.
Perhaps I will post photos of the final result. Nothing to write home about, but it was enough to really get me stoked up. I highly recommend Snap-Tite kits for people who are excited about finishing kits more so than building them.
Anyway, huge Thank You to Bobby Waldron of Genessis Models for this EXTENSIVE series of 26 videos with over 13 hours of instruction, focused on the build of a Hobbyboss 1:48 scale F-14D Super Tomcat.
