question about the Moebius 2001 Orion

[tgreco]

Anyone have pics of theirs completed.

I'm in the middle of building mine, and I'm just starting to put the paint on

I'm trying to figure out how the decals with the panels look on the kit

are they worth using, or is spending the time painting the kit worth the effort?

 

[JMChladek]

In my experience, while I haven't done the Moebius Orion, I did go about painting the panels (using frisket paper to mask the wings and tape for the fuselage) on an Airfix Orion back in 1999 and the look was great. I'm likely going to do that as well with this one given that the wing panel decals look like exact mirror images of one another with no sense of randomness to the patterns. With paint, one can get a bit more random pattern.

For something like this, doing the panels in white with a drop or two of aluminum or silver added to your airbrush color is all you need to get the proper contrast IMHO as too much contrast makes it look too checkerboard. I refined that technique a bit further when I did my 1/72 Moonraker a couple years ago (especially around the nose and on the ET and SRBs as opposed to the wings, although I used similar techniques there as well):

 

[Robiwon]

I built the Moebius Orion a few months ago, just as a quick weekend build. The panel decals Look O.K. if not a bit too contrasty. I ordered a set of decals that had the PanAm logo as well a some others for it. If I were to build another I would paint the panels myself. From what I read I believe the panels decals with the kit are not complete. They do look good. I'll take some pics tonight and post them. Although, I am not happy with the white I used, it was a Tamiya white and has a strong yellow tint to it. I think it was Racing White.

Lots of good info here for the Orion. Check page 11 for paneling options.

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=222210&page=11

 

[tgreco]

thanks Robiwon

my big thing is the panel lines that are on the decals, I wish they had scribed all the panel lines

 

[JMChladek]

Scribed panels would have been a bit overscale IMHO given the size of the Moebius kit. Looking at the pictures I've seen of the original studio model, it might have had scribes, but they are so slight that in the scale of the model, they wouldn't be visible. Doing the panel colors in paint seems to achieve the proper effect based on what I have seen.

But, it is your model afterall and you can do what you want with it. Just make sure to have lots of fun in the process.