Any suggestions, tips, etc, about rescribing a full kit?

[galileo1]

Hey all,

I'm considering finally working on my 1/48 Monogram F-100. It's a great kit and one that has been sitting in the stash for more than 10 years. Because it's such a nice kit and of a subject I really like, I'd like to do it justice but getting rid of the raised panel lines and doing a full (or at least 90%) rescribe.

Now, I know how to restore general panel lines lost due to sanding, etc, but I've never done a full kit rescribe. Is there anything I need to be mindful of when starting out? How should I go about exactly scribing the lines? I mean, do I somehow follow the raised lines with something before I sand the line off so that I can have something to use as a guide? Do I sand off raised detail one line at a time so I know where to position the scribed line?

These are some of the questions I've always had about doing these sorts of things so any, and I mean ANY, feedback will be truly appreciated.

Rob

Edited March 17, 2016 by galileo1

[Janissary]

Like you said, you could use the existing lines as a guide to lightly scribe right next to them, sand off the raised lines, and deepen the recessed ones you created. Artists' tape (looks like thin electrical tape) can be used as a guide for complex curves. Sometimes I use strips of cheap masking tape as a guide too, yo generally don't need thick guides for this. A pin in a pin vise, or Hasegawa's tritool set may come handy for the initial light scribing. I also use UMM's #2 scriber, but less often nowadays as it tends to create wide lines. The best sscriber is in my opinion still a sawing pin. Slip ups will happen, so you need to keep that in mind and have the patience to deal with them.

Unless you are super stoked about the project, I say don't do it :) Get yourself a recent, high-quality kit without headaches and get to the painting stage as fast as possible :) (just kidding, do whatever you want....)

[echolmberg]

Personally I'd save myself the headache and leave the lines as they are. It's my opinion that a better natural metal finish is accomplished by oh so slightly altering the shades of the individual panels than by dredging channels and filling them with sludge. When you look at most any picture of a plane with an NMF finish, your eye really sees the slight variances in the panel sheens, not the lines. I think scribing is just the artistic fad bandwagon on which everyone seems to jump.

[marvin20]

Personally I'd save myself the headache and leave the lines as they are. It's my opinion that a better natural metal finish is accomplished by oh so slightly altering the shades of the individual panels than by dredging channels and filling them with sludge. When you look at most any picture of a plane with an NMF finish, your eye really sees the slight variances in the panel sheens, not the lines. I think scribing is just the artistic fad bandwagon on which everyone seems to jump.

If you left them as they are, what would you do to recreate the raised panel lines that have been sanded away?

Edited March 17, 2016 by marvin20

[MoFo]

Biggest piece of advice: if you're struggling, don't force it. Scribing is one of those things where it **really** helps to be 'in the zone'. If you scribe a couple of lines and it's not going well, set it down and come back later.

Templates will help with complex shapes. There are plenty of PE templates for common shapes, but you can make your own templates for any unique shapes out of sheet styrene - lay some masking tape on the model, mark off the outline of the line with pencil, stick the tape on some .010" or .020" styrene and cut.

You can either sand the lines off and scribe the smooth parts, or trace along the raised lines. If you sand the lines off, you should be able to see a faint ghost of the lines to use as a guide. Buy a pack of dymo label-making tape and lay it down along the line you want to scribe, to keep them straight. If you keep the lines on, it can be enough of a guide to scribe straight lines, although Monogram lines can occasionally be 'blobby' (not smooth and consistent), which can be tricky. You need to go gently for a couple of passes to establish a groove. If you try heavier passes right away, your tool is likely to skip; if it DOES make a couple of passes from the opposite direction (say, back to front instead of front to back), to re-establish the line. If the skip is really serious, use some dymo tape to guide your tool while you finish the line. Also, get into a rhythm of using the same pattern on every line - the same number of passes at the same pressure - for a more consistent look. You should also try to scribe to the same *side* of the line all the time - to the front/back/left/right/inboard/outboard - again, it'll give you a more consistent look, and avoid mis-aligned panels. Finally, when you're finished, sand smooth, scrub with an old toothbrush, then brush a very light coat of liquid glue onto the panel lines to sharpen them up.

As for scribing tools... a needle in a pin vise is the most flexible option, since it will cut in any direction; it's pretty much the only choice for doing round lines. The 'Mr Line Chisel' tools are great for cutting sharp, narrow, straight lines. A micro/razor blade/PE saw is handy for scribing straight lines through CA and putty. Mostly though, it's just a matter of finding something you're comfortable with, and that delivers the results you want.

From there, it's just patience and practice. If you want to do a *really* nice job on the F-100 and you're afraid your skills aren't up to it, you might want to get junk kit to practice. There are plenty of old Monogram kits around, cheap. It will give you a feel for technique, and you can decide whether you prefer to follow the raised lines or sand and tape your own.

[ChippyWho]

The Monogram Super Sabre is a very good kit for re-scribing. I have a box full of scribed bits that aren't too bad at all, even done by a hammer-fist like me. Now a rather beautiful resin exhaust has arrived (cheers, Curt!) I really must get the thing stuck together!

I guess the jury will be out for a good while on whether you actually need to re-scribe an entire kit just to recess the panel lines; my guess is probably not -I just wanted to go the extra yards as the project was a dedication build for my fellow ARC dudes.

If you elect to keep the raised lines, there is a technique for restoring sanded-out ones but I can't remember where I read about it. Broadly speaking, I recall it was a bit like re-scribing but without sanding off the slight ridge you get with most scribing tools -instead, you have to compress this with a toothpick or something so you're left with a ridge without a recess, AKA...a raised panel line! Hopefully someone here can fill in the blanks...

For bushido re-scribing, I fully recommend loads of plastic labelling tape (don't be mean with it -use a new bit for every line!) and a good template set for tricky panels, access covers and the like: the Verlinden generic one I got for the purpose seems to cover pretty much every shape on the Hun.

Allow plenty of time, just tune out and take it slow. It IS boring, but not difficult. Do everything gently and let the scribing point do the work rather than 'leaning on it'. If your Hun is of the silver plastic variety, you can probably sand the raised lines right down and still have a 'ghost' line on the surface to work to. Grey plastic ones will let you take a bit less off, so sand/scribe/sand/scribe etc. before brushing the debris out of the lines and flushing them with thin liquid cement like MoFo said.

You'll be pleasantly surprised with the result!

[galileo1]

Thanks you very much for the great feedback, everyone! I am pretty stoked about the F-100 but most importantly, I want to get better and increase my comfort level with scribing and riveting. I have most of the tools needed for the job so I guess it's just a matter of doing it. There are lots of Monogram kits I'd like to build but I don't mainly due to the panel lines. As most of us, I like recessed panel lines because they are easier to work with. If you lose one during the build process, it's generally easy to restore it. Not so much with raised lines.

Anyway, you've given me quite a bit to think about. I'll keep you all posted on my progress as I get started on this.

Thanks very much, again!

Rob

[echolmberg]

If you left them as they are, what would you do to recreate the raised panel lines that have been sanded away?

An excellent question. This isn't scientific by any means but I'd have to estimate that of all the models I build, maybe 85-90 percent of them are Reveel/Monogram kits. That means, for the most part, raised panel lines. Whenever I sand off some of the lines, I just take my Xacto knife and add the line back in. For example, I'm currently working on the Monogram P-51D in 1/48 scale. Last night, I puttied and sanded the seams along the bottom of the fuselage. Tonight I'll take my Xacto knife and basically "draw" back in the missing line details. Since it's on the bottom of the plane that I nor anyone else will really ever see, I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time making it contest-worthy.

Whenever I have a panel seam line on the top of the fuselage, I'll just take my Xacto and roll the blade up and over the top of the fuselage following the path of the panel seam. After painting and weathering and when the model is more than a foot away from me, I really can't tell what's recessed and what's raised anymore. As I had mentioned earlier, I often mask and vary the shades of numerous panels. I let the differing shades denote the different panels. I don't leave it to a wash to do that. In my eyes, when people add washes to all the recessed panel lines, it makes it look like a big jigsaw puzzle and toy-like especially when I compare the model to a picture of its real life counterpart.

When it comes to raised vs recessed panel lines, one isn't "easier" to work with over another. It's simply that different methods are required. I hope you don't shortchange yourself from building the wonderful Revell/Monogram kits just because you have to use a different methodology on them.

Eric

Edited March 18, 2016 by echolmberg

[Jennings]

Age-old trick: find a release of the kit molded in silver plastic. You can sand everything off (don't use something like 100 grit paper, use relatively fine sandpaper and go easy), then *mist* (and I mean ***mist***) it with superglue accelerator. I don't know what the chemical reaction is, but the accelerator will cause the lines to become visible on the surface (basically a shadow of where you sanded them off). It's helpful to have a second kit handy for reference, but it works like a charm.