Ok, I figured that you guys that paint fighters would be able to direct me.

I’m looking to panelize a scifi kit (that has no panels on it), but I wanted to know do I have to etch the panel lines in or can I just base coat, put on square pieces of tape to cove the painted area to simulate panels; spray on the next color – put square pieces of tape – repeat the process and at the end pull off the tape to get a panel effect with the various colors?

Does that sound correct?

If so, do I start from light to dark?

That's pretty much it Starman, I'd go dark to light myself if only because it's easier to keep lightening your basic colour mix.
The important thing here is that the difference between the colours is not too marked. If you imagine a basic colour and then lighten it by say 15% each coat then the effect should be gradual.
Once you've acheived the effect you want, remove all the masks and touch in any areas of "creep". Then seal the whole thing with a coat of clear.
A few thin washes can help to even out any glaring differences in shade.

Ok, so it sounds like that I am on track then. I did figure out that a wash would blend everything in at the end.

Now here is the catch... for colors I was thinking of using either alclad or testors metalizer paints. So lighting these colors up is not that easy.

I'm trying to do an effect similar to say the panelization of a mig or starfighter (various tones of silver).

If you're going with metal, you could use foil. Bare Metal makes various shades of thin self adhesive foil. Another option would be to just use regular aluminum foil from the supermarket. The front and the back side will give you 2 different shades of metal, and you can alter them further by sanding with a very high grit paper. I usually use Future for the adhesion, but apparently commercial foil adhesives are available as well. I have a Tuskeegee P-51B wip right now that I'm using this method on.

The only problem you may have with paint is that metallic paints often don't play nice with most masking techniques (or topcoats for that matter). Your mileage may vary.

Humm... that is another option... Thanks

The other thing you could do is instead of mixing colours etc, you could spray different finishes on your panel areas. So you put down your metallic all over, then section off into panels, as you mention. Some panels you might leave 'as is', others you might put a satin clear coat, or gloss, or even matt coat on. It depends on your subject of course, but this can look quite effective.

Sounds like an interesting version to try.

To add to what Petar said, for metalics in addition to using the tape squares to set up random boxes of various clear coats (which will affect the sheen of the metalic topcoat), you can paint some of your random boxes in dark colors, black, blue, oxide red - things like that - and then apply the metalic topcoat carefully with an airbrush so that it is not completele opaque. This should give you an additional level of panel demarcation.

Konrad

Thanks!!

Further to Miniature Sun's worthy advice, after you mask, give the edges a coat of clear. That way, if there is a little bit of bleed, it will be clear. It also seals the edges so there is no colour bleed.
Chris.