I decided, upon seeing the black wash first hand, that Grimlock needed the effect continued over the rest of him so I decided to panel line him. This is only my second panel lining project. The first was Cybertron Vector Prime. I used India ink paint pens (well, one pen, super fine tip). Once I have the ink on the plastic, I dab and smudge with a cotton t-shirt (black, obviously) so as to wipe off excess ink and push the rest into the crevices. Alt mode & gear: I took some advice from Matrix Soul (found here) to add a sword handle to the blade.
Bot mode: Sorry about the poor pics but I took them very quickly this morning with a 2 MP point & shoot. Also, if you can see it in the last pic, I even detailed the inside of the legs and the inside of the grey back panel / flaps.
Well, that's one of the easiest ways to do it. Bandai actually makes markers just for that purpose, but you can probably use any marker or pen with a fine-enough tip.
You can also do a black wash which is thinned out black paint, then you whiped off the excess. Lining markers probably are the cleanest way. BTW, look cool.
That's nice... reminds me a lot of Devil's Due Grimlock from G.I. Joe / Transformers. Amazing how something small like lining can really enhance a figure, like the Jetfire from a few days ago
That is, more or less, what I do. I put down a couple of lines that are near one another and wipe away the excess. In areas where I really need some lining but it won't stick, I dab first then wipe.
how fine of a point do the lining markers need to be? I picked up two black ink pens with a .5mm point. Will those do? Or do I need to go to a paint supply store?
I use an 'S' sized artists paint pen. I have no idea what the measurement is, to tell the truth. IIRC, I found the pens I use in an Office Depot or Office Max.
You should see what a wash does to a Basics Unicron (*Ahem* Bludgeon *cough* *cough*) Should have taken before and after pics
I've slowly started doing that with my Armada Unicron(whole lot of space to cover). Looks pretty sweet with a black wash. I plan on doing a wash with Grimlock when I get him.