[WWI] Scale black

[Andy Bannister]

"Scale colour" is perhaps my biggest pet peeve so being the opinionated
b*stard I am I just  can't leave this alone. To my eye, substituting black
with dark gray just looks "wrong". Harry Woodman uses artists as an example
but artists (painters that is) work in 2 dimensions and they use scale
colour and perspective to create the illusion of a 3rd dimension. 
Using this same technique on a 3 dimensional model is inappropriate and
unnecessary. If, for instance, the model was part of a large scale diorama
where the angle of viewing was controlled then scale colour techniques would
be quite effective to simulate distance, but a model sitting on your shelf
if finished by  scale colour "rules" will only appear to have faded paint.
It won't look any more like the real thing sitting 72 or 48 feet away than a
toy rubber monkey will look like a giant ape because it is totally out of
context.
If a german aircraft has black crosses then a model of it should have black
crosses, not gray ones. Similarly, if you're modelling Jacobs' triplane then
it would look strange if it is gray instead of black. And as I mentioned on
our previous discussion of this topic, this whole scale colour malarkey
seems confined to the military modelling world, civvie aircraft & car
modellers don't bother with it at all, if they're even aware of it. I'll
cite again my examples of a dark gray John Player's Special Lotus and a
Quantas Airlines 747 in pale red and off-white - how odd would they look?
And if you take it to the nth degree then 1/700 scale ships would be pretty
much white overall.
All just my very opinionated opinion on the subject of course...
Andy 
 
CEO, Editor in Chief, Choreographer, Teaboy
www.warpedplastic.co.uk 


> -----Original Message-----
> From: wwi-bounces at wwi-models.org 
> [mailto:wwi-bounces at wwi-models.org] On Behalf Of Dennis Ugulano
> Sent: 18 November 2006 13:02
> To: WWI Model Airplanes
> Subject: [WWI] Scale black
> 
> 
> Everyone,
> 
>     This subject came up a while back and I was always under 
> the impression that black was black.  But, if someone were to 
> build a fighter in black, would it be black black or some 
> gray in it?  Inquiring minds need to know.
> 
> Dennis
> 
> 
> email:  djuggie(at)comcast(dot)net
> http://wwi.priswell.com/
> Page Revised 7/8/2006
> "Each modeler will rise to their own level 
> of masochism."
>