[WWI] "Scale Effect"

[Aidrian Bridgeman-Sutton]

On 3/28/09, Andy Bannister <a.bann at ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>
> It's complete bollocks. How do you know your "basic colours" aren't too light to begin with??

While it's not complete bollocks the method of just adding white is
definitely suspect.
Adding white works to a degree with some colours but relying on a
simplistic formula for a what is a complex set of variables in colour
perspective produces some unintended consequences. This is one of
those cases where it really is a case of "if it looks right it is
right" and pink roundels definitely don't look right except on some
modern flying blowtorches. Don't forget that very light colours tend
to grey so adding white isn't what you want

If you don't have handy access in your neighborhood  to a real
Albatross DIII in carefully researched and recreated original paint
colours then the best method I have come across is to paint a large
piece of cardboard (or your car, or the side of your house) in the
"full size" colour.  Then take another piece of cardboard and cut a
round hole in it and then paint it with various known mixtures of the
full size colour and very pale bluish grey in radial bands around
outside of the the hole.

Now if you look at the full size object through the hole from about 32
or 48 or 72 or 144  feet away depending on your scale you will be able
to  see which of the mixtures appears most like the original at a
distance. Probably it won't exactly match any but this will give you a
range of say somewhere between 1 part in 5 and 1 part in 6 or
whatever. It's still not ideal however - you're going to get some
different effects with different colours, reds being particularly
problematic.

The Albatross I mentioned brings up another point. If you're modeling
a weathered and worn machine then scale colour is definitely worth
considering as part of the overall effect. A Schneider in the Agean
could possibly benefit from even more bleaching of the colour to
suggest long exposure to sun and salt water as well as the intense
light you find in that part of the world

However if the model is intended to show off some spectacular and
colourful airborne heraldry I don't know that I would necessarily
follow this approach. In this case we're looking for an idelaisation
of the paint scheme. Since the colour is  the main reason for the
model I'd look to emphasise it rather than mute it  - the machine
would be in pristine condition and the reds should be red, the blues
blue, the yellows yellow and the varnished wood should glow like no
other wood ever glowed before.

I'm sorry I can't help with the link except to suggest that I seem to
remeber Ian Huntley offering a simliar chart in SAM about 25 years
ago.

Aidrian