Panel lining is an underrated technique, stop washing and check out how to get your armor looking awesome with this miniature painting tutorial!
Goobertown Hobbies is a great content creator who has interesting takes on the hobby. Whether it’s a collaboration with other hobby YouTubers or a challenge for himself, he has a broad range of topics he covers. Since he has so much great content, why not check out what else he has done?
In this week’s tutorial he is going over a painting technique but one that is often overlooked panel lining a miniature. Also, he’s using a model that looks awfully familiar…
Plus if you want to grab the file, you can get it for free here!
Panel Lining Armor: Goobertown Hobbies Miniature Painting Tutorial
This is a super easy effect that is essentially painting in the lines, so anyone can do it! It’s most often used by scale modelers, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all use it. The model he’ll be using is from Loot and again, you can grab it for free here.
Test Models
After printing the models, he primed them with Grey then did a few gloss varnish coats. Then, primed some other in bright colors. To show what panel lining is not, he did this model with an all-over wash with Nuln Oil. He also did an enamel wash from Mig.
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This is a cool look, but it gets over everything, so it might not be what you want. Let’s get into the panel lining miniature painting tutorial.
Oil Soluble Panel Liners
For this one, he starts with Tamiya Panel Liner. He basically just touches in all the little channels. You just need to touch your brush because it does most of the work for you. It gives you a very clean look.
Next, he uses the Mig Panel Liner. He does the same technique, just touch the grooves and it will do the work for you. Next, he makes his own, he mixes black oil paint and odorless paint filler.
This takes some more work because you have to do the mixing yourself. It’s a little harder to control, but does work okay, just not as good as the other two. You can see in the picture above how all three turned out.
Water Soluble Panel Liners
First, he starts with Nuln Oil. It goes on pretty well but doesn’t jump into the grooves like the oil ones. It gives you more control but takes much longer. Next, he tales the Black Templar Contrast Paint, this creates much stronger black lines but turns more into a choice than normal panel lining.
Next, he uses The Army Painter Speedpaint Grim Black. This works much like the contrast paint but takes more work than the oil ones because you have to trace all the lines. However, it does give a good bold black line.
Next up is the Black ink from Vallejo, and this was one of his favorites right away! It gives a dark line but goes on easier than the other water ones we’ve used so far. He even did this on the other colored models because he liked it so much.
After that, he goes to Liquitex Ink and it might even feel better than the Vallejo. To complete the cycle, he uses Pro Acryl Coal Black paint, and even though it’s not ink.
It worked well. You can see all the different ones above and how they all give a different feel.
Final Thoughts
They give a much different look than an all-over wash. They really give you a crisp feel without too much work. It just really makes your armor stand out and doesn’t take a ton of time, but will take more time than an all-over wash. The combo of just panel lining, base coats, and highlighting will give you really cool-looking armor.
If you are curious about what he has to say, and for more details on the techniques watch the full video above! Also, be sure to Subscribe to Goobertown Hobbies if you enjoy his content!
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
