Originally posted by oboe
Can you make a layer containing just the panel lines and nothing else? That's what most do I think. You don't want 3 layers of panel lines on top of each other....
You can merge them but you don't want to. If you have a white panel line/rivit layer and a black panel line/rivit layer you can vary the opacity of each depending on what colors your painting.
Before I merged the black panel lines with the black rivits I copied them and made a white panel line/rivit layer. THEN I blurred the black rivits and merged them with the black panel lines. That way when you lay the white layer offset one pixel over the black, the black rivits are blurred with a sharp white "dot" offset on top.
So I use two layers of panel line/rivits. One white, one black. And adjust opacity of each depending on the color of the paint I'm working with. What looks good on an olive drab skin looks funny on a natural skin and visa versa.
Then when you weather you add more layers and mess with them while they sit on top of the ones you have already done.
For example look at the panel lines/rivits in this picture
It's essentially just four layers. A black layer with blurred rivits, an offset white layer and another full white layer layed directly over the top of the original white layer. The full white layer is erased with different opacities to give the effect of worn paint. Greebo taught me that.
The last layer is a shadow layer over the panel lines only to give them alittle depth.
If you keep the white and black panel line/rivit layers ALWAYS seperate, you can use them in any paint scheme.
I'm totally confused now but I hope that makes sense