PANEL LINING TOOLS

Paneling your model kits

One of the easiest way to add details to a mecha kit without having to deal with resin kits or overly complex modifications is paneling. This word nowadays has two different meanings.

One is the act of filling panel lines with panel liner, an extremely diluted paint that flows into recesses such as those featured in the surface of Gundam kits, adding shadows and making details pop. The most popular choices when panel lining a model kit is the Tamiya Panel Line series.

The other is the act of carving these panel lines by using a scriber and/or chisel either freehand or using a scribing tape.

Buy chisels 

MechaUniverse offers some of the best scribers and chisels available on the market thanks to our partnership with SAB and MADWORKS.

We ship from Barcelona to all countries in the European Union with a flat rate for specific countries such as Italy, Germany, France, and Portugal. Our delivery times are between 24h to 72h hours.

You can find reviews on our eKomi website and on Google Reviews.

Choosing the right tool for the job

First of all, quality matters. This is especially true when working with sharp tools such as these, for a blunt or fragile edge will increase the difficulty of carving a clean panel line by a tremendous amount, while adding a safety risk should the blade itself fail. This is the main reason we recommend the fan-favourite MADWORKS and SAB chisels and scribers.
Newcomers to scribing may also be interested in the recent Gunprimer release, the Grida, a kit that includes scribing tools and guiding tape, all in one.

Second, it's not the same adding a panel line to a High Grade kit to an Evangelion Real Grade so we need to take into account the width of the blade we're using. Here at Mecha Universe use the following guidelines

• For those model kits at a 1/144 scale like the HGUC Gunpla line we recommend working between 0.125mm to 0.3mm while adding a bigger one between 0.4mm and 0.5mm
• For bigger models, like for example Master Grade Ver. Ka or Full Mechanics we have a wider range of widths to employ although we use 0.125 and up to 0.5 for most panel lines, leaving those between 0.6mm and 0.7mm for the bigger panels. There are bigger and smaller tools and this all comes down to preference but we feel this is a sweet spot in terms of cost and variety.
• On the largest scale models, such as Perfect Grade Gunpla that work at 1/60, we continue working with two different ranges. One that goes between 0.2mm and 0.4mm and the larger one, between 0.7mm and 0.8mm.