I have gotten okay at scribing straight panel lines and big circular ones like those found on nose cones or engine nacelles. I am not great at more complex shapes. I am building the Kinetic Cf-18. So far the kit has fit great, but the nose top plate fit had some unsightly seam lines near the where the gun fires from. I filled these these with some super glue, and it has dried and I’ve sand it smooth. Now I have to rescribe the panel lines. Good news is the black super glue Gives a good idea of where the likes are. Bad news is the shape is a little bit complex. I am looking for tips on to how to tackle this
In that scale, foget scribing them - too out of scale. Get a good hard lead (no.3?) pencil, sand the tip to a very sharp point, and draw your lines on. You will be amazed.
And if say, you needed to scribe or draw around the circumference of a nose with an irregular shape, cut a hole in a piece or plastic card stock. Keep working the hole until you can insert the nose into right where you want your line to be. Use the edge of the card stock as your guide.
Back a few years ago I got a bunch of dental tools/scribes for cleaning teeth from a dentist. All of them have very sharp tangs for such delicate panel line work…even on armor.
I actually have the narrow Scriber! It works really well. I am more so curious about techniques for guiding the scribe on curves like the one on the panel line for the cannon housing
Try scribing on primed surfaces, it is a lot easier and you get a better “feel” of your line depth.
For complex shapes the easiest way is to use templates. For the particular area you are interested you can try tracing the lines you want to scribe on a piece of paper and then use some plastic to make the template you will use to guide your scriber. I usually use the plastic from yogurt packaging, water bottles or similar, it is “bendy” enough to conform to the shape of the fuselage but keeps the scriber on the line.
My favorite scribing tool is a mechanical pencil with a pin instead of graphite. Cut the head off and use it with the pencil. I find it easier to control the pencil and follow the lines.
