International Scale Modeller

Hi

I am new to aircraft and hear the term raised panel lines, and felt I knew what it meant.

However yesterday I got in the mail an older Fujimi F15 that has raised lines and sunken lines.

Should all lines be sunken?

Is this a mixture or is this normal.

Just want to know the difference and what to look for

Thanks

Differs from aircraft to aircraft era, but in the main, most should have recessed panel lines. Older kits usually were raised, with fictitious rivets as well.

Newer kits generally have recessed lines, some are too deep (looking at you Airfix) and some go a bit nuts on the rivets, making them too big/out of scale or just too many (looking at Trumpeter here - the Mad Riveter).

You will get a mixture on some older kits and on some older style aircraft (and some new ones too - the F-35's for example) but research here (google/scalemates etc) will help.

Real aircraft have BOTH recessed and raised panel lines. The F-15 aircraft actually has a lot of raised panel lines. Here is an example; the wings have a lot of visible/semi-visible panels on them but the only panel lines that are recessed are the ones that have removable access doors. Those doors also have visible silver screw heads after that panel has been removed the first time after it's been painted. You can see evidence of rivets under the paint where the metal skin is attached to the structure but there often isn't a visible panel line there. The ones that do have a visible line have sealant applied, which is painted over, and this actually creates a raised panel line. Access panels and doors are the only ones that technically should have a wash applied as all the other panel lines are painted over and don't retain dirt. I wouldn't want to research that info for every model I build though.

That said, I like it when my kits have recessed lines. They don't go bye bye when you sand unless you have to sand a lot.

IMO look for kits that have recessed panel lines. They'll hold a wash better. If you think they're too 'deep' use more primer to fill them a bit. If you scale everything up most panel lines are too big, but I wouldn't worry about that, you're trying to represent the detail, not replicate it exactly in scale. If you did, your kit would lack interest due to lack of detail! A 5mm rivet head or 0.5mm panel line would barely be visible at the scales we work at.

I think the Fujimi only has the lines raised where they are supposed to be. If you get a chance look an older airfix model (pre mid 90's) They are the epitomy of raised lines. Reason for the raised lines was down to the molds and it was easier and cheaper on injection molds to use raised lines.

I don't really mind the raised lines. I do prefer the recessed because of sanding. jmo.

When you think about it, raised panel lines make no sense (to me at least). They represent the line where two panels meet so how can they be raised? You can have raised panels but not raised panel lines.

They are purely symptomatic of an older and cheaper mould process. If I see a kit with raised lines I wont go near it because it goes against all my build techniques, both in terms of construction and painting.

Its also a pretty good guide as to whether the kit's any good in general.