Tamiya has released a “Panel Line Accent” line with 4 colors: Black, Brown, Gray and Dark Brown. They are an enamel-based wash, so it is smelly and it could attack bare plastic, so test it on a scrap piece (a runner or extra part) first.

The panel line accent is packaged in the same kind of bottle than the Tamiya Glue down to the small and thin applicator brush, which comes in very handy when applying it to a recessed panel line.

In this review I applied 3 “spots” of panel accent line to an unpainted piece (leftover) from and Eduard model and it did not damage that plastic. Not only that, but 3 applications were enough to see all the panel lines completely covered. The wash just flows on its own along the whole panel line.

Then I decided to try this product on a Bf-109F-4 which had a coat of Future on top of the decals. You can see the before/after application. They speak by themselves. Very restrained, yet clear surface detailed popped out due to the application of this wash.

My observation in this case was that the wash behaved more like a “pin wash”. On top of the Future it spreads into the panel line a shorter distance than when I applied on top of of bare plastic. Maybe I needed a shinier coat of Future?

In any case this wash highlighted very nicely all the panel lines. I let it dry for about 30 minutes and then I used a Q-tip that was dipped on Mig Thinner for washes (I was not sure what else to try to clean it up). It worked great with it. It likely will work well with mineral spirits for clean up. Once again, try it first.

This panel line accent seems to work really well, it flows easily into the panel lines and clean up easily with a Q-tip and enamel thinner.

Highly recommended.

I would like to thank Tamiya USA and IPMS/USA for the review sample.