[WWI] "Scale Effect"

[Joe Huntley]

Well I think I can blow a lot of this talk  on theorys away really fast.

Who cares?  I mean really there are so many variables that planes coming out 
of the same factory 1 day apart have differences in their colors.

Now heres what matters and that is lighting. you can get  every jar of 
original paint right from the factory assembly line and then paint your 
model and it wont even look close ub\nless it was sitting next to the 
original plane at the exact same time of day and side by side.

I used to be a taxidermist and have airbrushed more than a few gallons of 
paints and I will tell you  you never get something the same as the 
original. As most people here seem to be into the smaller plastic versions I 
will use it as an example.

When you  see a picture of an aircraft. (imagine all pictures are in color 
for this example) it is usually outside on the flightline or something. so 
you see the colors and go home mix  asnd match and paint your model. Now if 
you take your model outside and it was the exact same spot as the full scale 
was and the exact same time of day and you photo your model there will be a 
night and day difference in the two photos colors.

Now you take your model to some show where you are in a gymnasium or 
something. Bam there again your colors are wrong.

You see guys when you paint something it will never be the right color ever 
ever ever. What it will be is the right color for 5 minutes of each day in 1 
certain spot. going back to our original full scale. if you use a tripod and 
snap a photo of the plane once every 15 minutes the colors of the aircraft 
will change due to the intensity of the sun the angle of the sun etc. same 
with a model. here you are at home mixing up your colors and painting you 
plane. lets say ya have a table lamp there to brighten it up so you can see. 
now as long as you display your model next to a table lamp the colors will 
be correct. now take it outside and bam the shades are off. take it to a 
gymnasium bam again the shades are wrong. Light makes all the difference.

Whenever I painted a fish I asked the customer where he was going to display 
the fish. then explained the light and color thing and took one of my 
finished fish down and turned on regular  room lights and showed hiom then 
turned off the room lights and turned on a florescent light the colors 
changed again, and they would change again in a gymnasium under the mercury 
vapor and again outside. when I went to a competition I painted my fish 
under the light they were goiung to be seen under at the competition. and 
sometimes they looked like crap around the house or outside. all I cared 
about is they looked awesome at the competition. once that was over I could 
just repaint them for hanging on the wall.


Moral of the story is who the heck cares what shade of this or shade of that 
they were, no matter what we do our color will never trueley be correct 
unless we mix and paint the aircraft at the same place the photo was taken 
and at the same time of day. so why do people argue over something noone has 
control over anyways its silly.





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Aidrian Bridgeman-Sutton" <smokeandsteam at gmail.com>
To: "World War I Modeling Mailing List" <wwi at wwi-models.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 2:10 PM
Subject: Re: [WWI] "Scale Effect"


> 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