[WWI] "Scale Effect"

[Tom Mason]

I think I will add my two cents worth to this discussion. I don't believe in 
painting for scale effect. Let me explain.Since I build mostly in 1/72 I 
will use that as an example. Look how many of us will put readable scale 
instruments in our 1/72 and 1/48 scale cockpits. If you look at a 1/72 scale 
model from one foot away it is the equivalent of looking at it from 72 feet 
away and at that distance we could not read them, but we know they are there 
and when we look into the cockpit and don't see or can't read the 
instruments it looks like something is missing or wrong. To me the same 
applies to the color. To give an example, even though this is ot, I have a 
book with color chips of Luftwaffe colors, they were matched to existing 
real color chips produced in Germany during the war. Now when I see a model 
with colors that don't match or are close, taking into consideration 
weathering of the model, it doesn't look right to me. Even though  all the 
variable mentioned before distance, light source, etc. if we know the right 
color it looks wrong to us. I use ot Luftwaffe colors here as they are know 
as compared to OT colors. And, I have been building models for 55 years from 
back in the days there was no reference to accurate color and all model 
paint was glossy.

T.O.M.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Huntley" <jahuntley at mchsi.com>
To: "World War I Modeling Mailing List" <wwi at wwi-models.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 5:34 PM
Subject: Re: [WWI] "Scale Effect"


> thats cool I just had to stir the pot a little. there is a little trick to 
> the coloring that takes care of some and that is you have a mix of 
> flourescent and insandescent lights  going above the poainting table and 
> that  gives you a more accurate look in any light. used that one a few 
> times myself. since I do RC a lot of my painting is done outside since 
> thats where my planes are usually displayed not to mention a lot easier to 
> get around the whole thing lol especially once I am to that stage on this 
> 1/2 scale Pfalz XII I am doing
>
>
>
>
> ----- 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 5:13 PM
> Subject: Re: [WWI] "Scale Effect"
>
>
>> 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.
>
> Actually a lot of us do care...that's why the subject comes up from
> time to time.  For many of us the model is just the groudwork for a
> three dimensional painting of the original and colour matters.
>
> There are some professional loonies who insist they can't finish their
> model because they don't have a FS595 match for Russian CDL and swear
> that what is in 595 must cover any and all possible ranges of colours
> - often these sorts are full of knowledge but short on understanding.
> They are also frequently the types of people who seem to reduce the
> art of colouring to the unthinking use of formulas for mixing the
> exact shade they want from Tamigunzcoat paints  - we don't seem to
> have many of those around here thank heavens
>
> Hopefully we don't take it to absurd levels like trying to mimic the
> fact that the guy stirring the paint had a hangover on the day one
> particular plane came out of the works, but we try to paint under the
> same sort of light that the model will be displayed under (no
> cool-white fluorescents thank you) and try to get the individual
> colours and more importantly *their relationships to each other*
> reasonably close. No we can't control metamerism which is a product of
> differing pigments and paint chemistry, but we can control a lot of
> other things
>
> Would you buy a landscape painting where the artist had used poster
> colour bright green for the ground and cobalt blue for the sky? Or
> spend weeks building a Camel and paint it any old green with any old
> buff colour underneath? I don't expect Victorian watercolours  to look
> the same under CFLs as they did under gas lamps, but neither do I
> choose to display them like that.
>
> The idea is to come up with something that looks credible rather than
> an exact match for a specific type of paint on a specific day in 1917.
>
> Aidrian
>