Airbrushing for the begginer

[Guest]

Well, as you know im starting at the foot of the ladder with this airbrushing so i decided to purchase a nice book "Airbrushing And Finishing Scale Models". There is so much to learn. I learnt something last night whist reading, something that i had not given a thought to even at the scale that i build. Colour Perception. It seems that in reality the further away you are from an object the original color would appear lighter or weaker. The book states that the original color should be mixed with a percentage of White dependant on the scale, therefore giving the perception of distance in reletivity. Im sure you guys know all about this but i had to mention it at i have never heard anyone talk about it...

Do you guys do this as the norm?

Andy

[Guest]

Often referred to as 'Scale Colour', there is actually a formula for how much a 'true' colour should be faded for a given scale. I have seen this somewhere but to be honest, I cannot remember where. In answer to your question, some do, some don't. I don't fade main colours, not for any reason other than I cannot be bothered. However, I have come around to the idea that I don't use pure white or pure black anymore. Nearly everything I paint that should be black will be done as a a dark grey. Whites are always off white either swinging to ivory or cream depending what it is. Ivory is the most likely. In itself, this is a type of very limited scale colour.

I am learning though to pick colours that may not be the correct colour but looks more 'right'. I suppose this could also be seen as scale colour. I used to be paranoid about getting the name and make of 'just the right shade' but no longer, it is more important to get it looking right than the exact factory match.

This is of course, my opinion and may not be readily supported.

[Guest]

Thanks graham, i appreciate your input. I understand about the matter of preference and each to his own. I did learn about scale black, white and insignia colors. As you see from my builds i stick to the original Olive Drab but give it the ageing affect by wire-wooling, really does the trick, i never thought of adding white to it though. I suppose if one were to enter in a scale compertition this would give you the edge over those who paint the standard color and weather the model.

Andy

[Guest]

I wonder why the manufacturers don't use the scale factor to produce "scale specific" paints?

[Guest]

Thats a valued question Marcos and in the KlassKote range for the scale i build at i.e 1/6th and larger, they have just come out with something, however, at the smaller end of the scale i guess given this factor of perception there would have to be one for every scale, valid point though. I also have an expensive book of true color chips that allow you to mix your paints to the exact match but you would still need to fade them.

Andy

[Gern]

Didn't Nick Karatzides put something on one of his posts about scale colour? I'm sure he used some scale calculation or colour chart when he built his 20mm gun.

Gern

[Guest]

That must have been while i was away Dave. i missed that one, ill have to try and look for it,

thanks

Andy

[Guest]

Alright Andy

I agree with Graham. I do what seems right. I just sprayed my JS-2 and rather rely on Tamiya's Olive Drab colour, i remember my pics from a Russian tank museum and used that as a reference so the colour was a lot darker than the instructions insisted on.

As for the scale colour principle, many modellers like to choose one of two ways - colour modulation or scale colouring. Adding some white to tone down the colour does make a tiny difference in the sense that you weather the model very ltitle otherwise you won't notice it at all.

Cheers

Paul

[Guest]

Hi mate,

I was just reading through a modelling magazine that I just got and it has a small thing about scale colour. I'll scan it later and post it up if you like? It includes mixing ratio's n the like.

Cheers

Kresten

[Guest]

Thanks Kresten but please do not post scans of copyright materials, the magazines, quite rightly, do not like it.

[stona]

I don't think it would be practicle for the paint manufacturers to make paints scaled to even the three most popular scales. There are plenty of debates (usually generating more heat than light) about who has the best matches for original colours as it is. The best the manufacturers can do is match their paints to samples and artefacts. Some manufacturers,like White Ensign and Xtracrylix, go to great lengths to produce accurate versions of period colours.

The scale effect is very much a subjective and therefore artistic rather than scientific effect. I don't put much faith in the ratios you will find on modelling sites (30% white for 1/72,15% white for 1/48 etc) as it depends so much on the colour you start with. Also you don't always need to lighten with white. Olive Drab scales nicely with the addition of a little yellow.

There are basically two solutions for the scale effect. Some people choose a paint which is already lighter than the original and apply that. Others start with what they consider a good match to the original colour and lighten that. Some do the lightening very scientifically using scale programmes and carefully measured quantities,others (that'll be me) just splosh a few drops of a lighter colour in until it looks about right.

Like everything else in model building there are many ways of achieving the result and no right or wrong way. At the end of the day if it looks good to you then it's right.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Hi

No probs. lol. Well ill put in the mixing percentages in anyway just for a reference, thought steve does make a good point. It is always up too you as it is your model and as long as u are happy thats all that matters.

1/32, 1/35: 7-10%

1/48 :10-25%

1/72: 15-30%

1/144: 23-38%

Hope that is a little help.

Cheers

Kresten

[Guest]

I wonder why the manufacturers don't use the scale factor to produce "scale specific" paints?

I would hazard a guess and say that the reason for this is costs.

Lets suppose there are 1,000 people buying Humbrols 81 Pale Yellow (I choose that colour as an example as there is a tin in front of me). So thats 1,000 sales, at (Im making this up) a profit of 50p per tin, less a base of of £100 = £400.

If they made scale colour then they would have to continue making the base colour, plus another for 1/72, one for 1/48 and another for 1/32, then one for 1/250, 1/450 etc etc

This means that they no whave to make 5 different colours with a base production cost of £100 each, but they would only continue to get 1,000 unit sales between them which equals no profit.

Now the figures Ive used are probably way way out, but the principal is the same. It just wouldnt be cost effective. Also, even if they did make scale colour then there would still be the real experts who were not toally happy and would still mix their own.

Ive seen an article on scale colour and there seems to be a 50:50 split between those that use it and those that dont. Ill have a dig and see if I can find it.

Here is an argument in favour of scale colour and the percentages to use.

Painting: Scale Color

And an argument against

Scale Colour - Rubbish!!!

[stona]

Very interesting Penny. Even the rubbisher does not attempt to deny the existence of the effect. I actually agree with him that trying to scientifically quantify this in a modelling context where there are so many variables is pure folly. I alluded to this in my previous post.That's why I'm in the "chuck it in until it looks right"camp!

One thing's for sure,an accurate match for,say,the dark green camouflage colour applied to WW2 RAF aircraft will APPEAR too dark on a small model. Whether you are bothered by this is an entirely personal matter. I'm happy to give advice,when asked, on what colours were most likely applied to a particular aircraft but you'll never see me criticise someone else's interpretation of those colours. An interpretation is what we are all doing,it is only ever going to be an approximation.

It's another case of each to their own.

Here's a quote from his article with which I hope we can all whole heartedly agree!

"It boils down to this: if you think it looks right, if you're happy with the way it turned out, then that's really all that matters."

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Is it not ironic that the person who calls scale colour 'rubbish' has a website of such awful colours that I for one cannot stand to read it all........

I must admit that I am finding the concept of 'modulation' fascinating if not as easy as it looks. The whole idea of fading and darkening a base colour to accent highlights and shadows is not new. Washes and drybrushing do exactly the same thing, especially if using filters to blend them in a bit. The whole idea of modulation is to get this effect apparently blended into the paint as it would look in real life. You only have to look at something with a reasonably complex shape, such as a car, to see the difference between the colour in the shade and on the roof, also the same colour on the extremities of a curve can appear almost white if reflecting the sky no matter what colour the car is.

This is why I believe modulation to be a more useful technique to learn than scale colour as you can replicate (or as near as possible) this effect of light falling on a vehicle. To me, even if you applied scale colour, you would still need to build light and shadow into it. So a technique of colour modulation and filters will give the best of both worlds in my opinion.