While painting my Tamiya Meteor kit I made an annoying discovery – flat white paint soaks up paint like a sponge. Everywhere I applied a panel line wash with my acrylic paints I ended up with a big brown mess that I ended up having to repaint. Unfortunately I had already painted my F-4 Phantom kit in the same manner so what was I to do? After I finished weathering the upper surfaces of my Phantom with a chalk pastel wash, I came upon the idea of using a pencil on the underside.

I started by digging out a regular HB pencil, something that should be in every household. Working in small areas I then lightly traced over the panel lines and then softened and blended the lines with a cotton-swab. I rubbed parallel to the direction of the panel line. Where I wanted an oil leak, I drew it into place with the pencil and then blended it in the direction of the air flow with the cotton-swab. If I screwed up and added too much, a simple eraser took it away. Don’t press too hard, or the paint will disappear too.

This was an easy and successful experiment. The underside of my 1/48th scale Phantom took about 45 minutes to finish and it has the dirty look I was striving for. I don’t think I’d recommend this as a replacement for paint or chalk pastel washes, but in a pinch (or emergency) your household HB pencil can work.