Originally posted by Ecliptik
Rivets should be only barely visible from very close up, with panel lines being a little more visible from farther out. It varies from aircraft to aircraft, but from only a few dozen feet away, I think even panel lines were barely visible on the painted sections of most planes.
I agree that many skinners make panel lines and rivets way too visible. But it does depend on the plane and what panel on it. Note, however, that airplanes often have big screws holding down cowlings and access panels. These are often QUITE visible, as opposed to rivets.
RivetsIn general, most WW2 planes had flush rivets. These are invisible under paint from more than a couple of inches away, and can only be seen on bare metal within a couple of feet. Therefore, in such cases, it's not only a complete waste of time to draw rivets at all, but seeing them is also completely inaccurate.
However, there are several cases where rivets are visible at rather long distances:
- Domehead Rivets: Some early-war planes had these all over, and most late-war planes had a few here and there where the skin was too thin to countersink or dimple for a flush rivet. On bare metal and light colors of paint, the protruding rivets appear as grayish dots on the lighter skin. On NEW painted planes, however, they're not very visible on dark colors. But because they stick up they quickly get their paint scraped off before the surrounding skin. Then they show up readily as silver dots on the dark background.
- Poor Parts Fit: This was a particular problem for later-war German planes and early-mid Russian planes. There were often gaps between the skin and the underlying structural members. Thus, when rivets were shot in, they tended to make wide, shallow dimples in the skin. These dimples, several times as wide as the rivets themselves, show up well under certain lighting conditions, although the rivet in the center might be invisible. It's very hard to duplicate this effect on a skin, however.
- Pre-painted Subassemblies: This was most common for late-war Germans, although some Brit planes with similarly dispersed production sites also had this. Some upstream factory would build a chunk of the plane all the way to final paint, then ship it somewhere else for final assembly with other such chunks. The rivets along the joints between chunks often weren't ever painted, especially for the Germans, so even if all the other rivets were invisible, you'd have scattered rows of silver dots. NOTE: this is also why some late-war German planes had different panels painted RLM 76 and others that greenish shade sometimes called "RLM 84". Different subassembly factories had different colors of paint.
- Hard Use: High G and hard landings can bend the plane. This can sometimes pop rivets out, and their replacements sometimes aren't painted. Also, the skin can get slight creases in it along underlying stringers, and along that stringer the skin will dimple more around the rivets.
Panel LinesThe visibility of panel lines also varies a lot on the same plane. The line represents a seam between 2 panels, and because there are several types of panels with different purposes, the lines between them look different. In general, it's like this:
- Fixed, Flush Panels: These make up the bulk of the surface of the plane. These panels are never intended to be removed. They have a very narrow gap (less than 1/8") between them for thermal expansion, but this is filled with putty to keep out rain and make a smooth, aerodynamic surface. Under paint, these lines are usually invisible beyond a few feet, and they're not much more visible on bare metal. However, sometimes there wasn't any putty. This was usual for early-war Russian planes and common for late-war German planes, at least where major subassemblies joined. With no putty, you have a small 3D trench in the surface, so the line would be rather visible. Also, hard use could spring up the edge of 1 panel by a fraction of an inch, making a rather visible 3D step.
- Big Access Panels: This is like cowlings, gunbay doors, and things like radio and baggage compartment doors in the mid-fuselage. These almost always have a 3D trench effect around them, and it gets worse the more the panel is opened, because they get bent slightly. This is especially bad for big, flimsy things like cowlings, that get removed after nearly every sortie. Gaps here can get rather wide and very noticeable. But things like radio doors are sturdier and usually don't get as much use, so they're in between cowlings and fixed panel lines.
- Small, Flush Access Panels: These are like handholes in the lower, outer wing surfaces, fuel filler caps, etc. These hatches are recessed into the skin and the doubler required to mount them is rather visible, plus there's often a noticeable 3D trench around the edge of the panel. These are fairly noticeable as a result.
- Protruding Access Panels: These are usually found covering control linkages near the tail and wingtips. The skin there is often too thin for a flush panel, so the panel sits on top of the surrounding skin. Therefore, it has a 3D step all around and is quite visible.
