[WWI] 1/32nd Pfalz D.III quicky review

[Robert Karr]

<<
A question on the color of silver. How did the silver paint weather the elements? Did it perhaps dull over time to look more like a gray? Anybody know? I'm not talking about today's automotive pigments, which are rather robust. I'm thinking in terms of silver paint produced 90 years ago.>>

 Windsock  v21 n4 July August '05 had an analysis of actual Pfalz silvergray. Doing his usual battery of chemical and microscope tests, Alan Tolle reamed this sample out. Despite what we've read for years, the only pigment present was pure aluminum chunks, irregular is shape at the microscopic level. These chunks were in dope, not varnish or paint. The coating was sprayed on, drying quickly before the pigment particles had time to settle down snug and flattish. The random orientation of the particles and the roughness of the quick-dry spray job diffused the reflected light and caused it to look like the ambient light around it.
RK
www.karrart.com

p.s. for the real pigment junkies, the sizes of the alu bits varied between 2 to 40 microns, with the average size being less than 20 microns
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