So, let's see your panel lined figures!

I've panel lined a few of my figures with Sharpies. I'll get some pics later, but for now, let's see yours!

 

I've panel lined lots of my figures with Sharpies as well, especially Classics.







You can't see it all that well in some of these pics, but these are just a few of the figures I've panel lined. I don't have pictures of many of the others.

 

Ah, so your the one how's seekers I saw... Those look great! That must have taken forever to do!

 

eugh. why.

Black, right? if so, that's actually purple. It looks bad. It's also tacky. Not as in, "it looks tacky" (although it does), it's physically tacky.

Sharpies don't belong on toys. Sharpies are a form of action figure abuse.
It's sloppy. If you're going to do it, do it right. It's not hard, or expensive.

Use a paint wash, or even a fine tip gundam marker (which are actual paint), and pick a color based on the plastic color. Black panel lines don't go on every color plastic.

 

Starscream just "screams" to be panel lined.

Is Sharpie marker the best way to do it?

Edit: Um, well that was quick.

Ok, next question. What kind of paint wash?

 

Option 1: a Gundam Marker, they're cheap, and actual paint. Get different colors depending on what color plastic it's going on. Amazon.com: * Gundam Marker Black Fine Point GM01 (For Panel Lines): Everything Else One note, ALWAYS wipe away the excess paint.

Option 2, the best one, a paint wash:
Aircraft Panel lines step by step guide by Gary Wickham Ignore the pre-scribing step, as most TFs have deep channels. Seriously, look at that. it's subtle and looks f'ing beautiful.

 

I love you.

 

Listen to this guy. Lemme tell you right off...It's not hard to paint at all. It really, really isn't. I read about how people are so scared about ruining your toys but the reality of the matter is that it's only as hard as you believe it is. I've got shaky hands and everything and I can paint Warhammer 40K minis no problem.

Just need to actually jump in and do it!

 

I'm sorry, but I don't often order online and Sharpies are easily accessible.

No, it's black. Black looks like black, purple looks like purple.

They're my figures, so you have nothing to worry about. I like the way it looks.

If you do it right with Sharpies, it looks fine(if you mess up, rub and rub and rub right away. On white and grey figures, do it FAST!). I prefer it to be perminant, so I prefer Sharpies.

Also, Sharpies come in more than one color; for white figures, I use grey Sharpies and for about every other color I use black.

 

Not to derail ,but this reminds me of my rined RiD Prowl and i sometimes kind of want to save that figure. Long story short, I bought testors red paint and applied it directly on the figure (was trying to make him an all-red ferrari). It came out predictably awful and perpetually sticky. I later rubbed alcohol on him trying to undo the damage and now he looks pink with reddish splotches everywhere. That was years ago.

Now, Radicons tutorials are in general very helpful but it's a LOT of info to digest, especially when many technical terms are difficult to find the spanish equivalent for (for example it took me a while to find out what Primer was called here). If I'm getting the tutorials right, what I'd need to do is carefully disassemble the figure, sandpaper it down, apply the primer -and sanding that down later too?- and then paint away? That was only one method, but it's the one closest to what i think I should do.

Strangely enough RiD Prowl isn't even that expensive now, I could just get another one. It's just a pity to have destroyed that one.

 

Nope, sorry. It's a dark purple. It gets more obvious over time. Also, dust sticks to it no matter how long it's been applied.

No, it always looks like crap. Especially when people decide to cover large areas with them. If you think it looks fine, then you just have odd standards of quality. Even their paint markers are crap.

I have never, ever seen any toy that a sharpie has touched NOT turn out looking like garbage.

Seriously, I was ******ed and used sharpies on a 1/144 Gundam model like 12 or so years ago. I know what I'm talking about. It looked like shit then, it looks like worse shit now. It's also discolored all the plastic around the panel lines, permanently tinting the white plastic purple.

Paint is permanent, until you want it not to be. Paint is still better for an even application, look, and durability, and that will never change.

Seriously man, look at the paint wash page I linked to. Look at that work, and tell me a sharpie is still fine.

You don't want to order online? Fine. There's another alternative. PENCILS. Seriously. I've used 0.3 lead mechanical pencils for light gray panel lining, and it looks great, and it's really easy to control how thick/dark the lines are.

 

A lot of that is simply just to ask questions. I'd advise anyone who hasn't done it before to not only read guides but to ask A LOT of questions. Google helps too, and if there's something you don't get, look elsewhere as there may be a better lay explanation.

 

Just do yourself a favor and invest in some Gundam Real Touch markers. And use the wipe method you mentioned earlier. Boom.

 

If you need a hand and the tutorials aren't helping, send me a PM. I may also be interested in your RID junker. Again, send a PM.

 

Really appreciate it, I'll let you know if I finally decide to do something with poor ol' Prowl.

Now that I remember I think there's a chilean Radicon somewhere too. I might just have to find and contact him since he lives in Santiago too.

 

Well, now I'm worried about my WfC Megatron and Generations Thunderwing...

 

Oh man, I feel your pain. It actually scared me off of trying to detail most of my bigger Gundams, even after I had bought the proper Gundam markers and had some practice with other 1/144s under my belt.

 

There was a point where I panel lined a bunch of figures, and yes, Sharpies ain't gonna cut it for long.

Though while I the topic there's something about panel lining white figures that seems off to me... Like I've seen Classics Jetfire and Generations Drift panel lined, and the look off to me... I don't know, does anyone else feel the same?

 

^Yeah, it just doesn't look good on some figures... Also, what happened to the figures?

 

frogDNA, you mean?