An excellent video by Adam Savage on how to make paneling for sci-fi and spaceship models. I was hesitant to add the term "panel lining" to this post, as from my understanding, panel lining in scale modeling is the method of scoring the plastic with a sharp object in order to simulate panel lines. This video however focuses more on the method of adding surface detailing by adding pre-cut panels and parts.
Adam Savage is an expert on this, having worked for Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) in the past and having made models for Star Wars and The Matrix films (to name a few). Aside from his skills as a builder and model maker, I've always admired Adam Savage's skill in explaining things that noobs can easily understand. In this video you'll learn not only the tools and materials commonly used, but also the terminology and the design philosophy that he follows when creating the paneling and adding the greeble's to the surface. Yep, you heard that right, Greeble. First time for you?, first time for me as well. It's description in wikipedia is actually quite succinct:
[The] prominent detailing added to the surface of a larger object that makes it appear more complex, and therefore more visually interesting
In the video, the Greeble's he used were from left over plastic parts and from old Tamiya tank kits. Now we are fortunate that scale model companies actually make pre-made Greebles like that of the Modeling Support Goods by Kotobukiya (this is an affiliate link) which give hobbyists more options in their builds. If in case the part you want to add is already connected to an existing model of yours. You can always resort to resin casting to duplicate the part. That's assuming of course that the part can still be detached and casted *snicker*.
I always enjoy watching the videos in Adam Savage's Tested channel because it has a lot of content on things related directly or indirectly to scale model building. Not only the techniques, but the history of building models and props for movies which is probably what inspired a lot of us to get into this hobby in the first place.
