Airbrushing for the begginer

[Guest]

:wow: Colour clash I would say......

Tony..

[Guest]

Well guys, i seemed to have started something here. it is a very interesting topic and as i suspected, you all have your different opinions though somewhat similar. Starting this thread has been a very good excersise for me, it has prised some valuable information from you guys, all of which i have taken onboard.

Thank you all for your input

Andy

[Guest]

Like we always preach on here Andy. No such thing as a stupid question. It always amazes me when someone asks a question that even I can answer, I learn so much from the conversation that develops. Such things make the forum a unique way of learning and there just isn't another forum better than this one of ours.

[Guest]

i agree Graham, this is the place for learning and meeting new freinds. Be prepared for some more of them questions lol. As i go through this book i will seek the opinoin of the experts.

Thanks again

Andy

[stona]

Absolutely right Graham. Painting a model with a paint exactly the same colour as the original (if that's even possible) is not the objective. Infact it's not about the actual colour which can be scientifically and mathematically defined but about our perception of that colour. All the shading,modulating,filtering etc is an effort to fool the eye into believing it is looking at a reduced version of the original object.

I just looked at my metallic lava grey car in the watery winter sun we are enjoying here in Birmingham and there were too many variations in shade reflections and all the rest to count! One thing that car does not look like is a dark grey lump!

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Just out of interest, I recentlydecided to paint my latest Ferrari - 312T3 - in the correct colours. Found the correct code for Rosso Corsa for that time and bought some. It looks right as it's sprayed but dries completely wrong. It looks worse than any other Ferrari I have done before. I won't be doing that again! Back to mixing by eye.

Regards

Mike

[stona]

Just out of interest, I recentlydecided to paint my latest Ferrari - 312T3 - in the correct colours. Found the correct code for Rosso Corsa for that time and bought some. It looks right as it's sprayed but dries completely wrong. It looks worse than any other Ferrari I have done before. I won't be doing that again! Back to mixing by eye.Regards

Mike

Voila! thanks for giving an example of exactly what I'm trying to explain.

Cheers

Steve

[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.

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.It seems that somebody pay attention on my WIP articles.Colors of a small model seem to be more dark than the colors of a bigger one. Scale lighting is a percentage of white color that should be added to make the exterior of the model more realistical. The start color is the color of prototype. One more nuance should be taken in account, especially for historical models: Use lower percentage if you wish to get the surface that seems like just-painted; Use heigher percentage if you wish to get some old and fade surface. The following figure below helps to evaluate the scale lighting you need.

1. Very old paint area
   
2. Old paint area
   
3. Just-painted area
   

You can download the SLC - Scale Lighting effect Calculator program (free software), by clicking HERE. Minimum system requirements: PC 256 MB RAM; Windows 2K, NT, XP or higher; 10 MB free disk space. For more infos on color scale effect, feel free to click:

• HERE as described into the 1/35 scale FDCV - Fire Direction Center Vehicle Hellenic Army WIP article,
  
• HEREas described into the 1/35 scale Rheinmetall Mk 20 RH-202 2x20mm Hellenic Army WIP article.
  

Additional, for lighted surface effect, click HERE as described into the 1/18 scale Jukka Tervamäki Engineering JT-9T autogyro WIP article and have a look on how I tried to simulate the different lighting angles on a canvas side airframe, stretched by autogyro's skeleton.

[Guest]

Ok here is the thing call me dumb but that article that i read is like reading Klingon i don't understand it and iam not a chemist, so for me like probably most people i will gauge a colour by eye example, my kriegslocomotive.... the colour chart called for the equivelent of german grey ( Tamiya) but to me it looked wwwwaaayyy too dark it just looked wrong, so i went for humbrol sea grey this was a nice compromise the tamiya alternative to this is (neutral grey). So once the sea grey was painted and dried i added white to the neutral grey for the highlight colour and now it looks more like the box art colour. I don't dispute that these techniques have merit but iam only painting a model kit here and while i do my utmost to get it looking as authentic as possible i like to keep my approach simple so that if for example i was asked to demonstrate i could do it with my eyes shut, maybe my simplistic approach is wrong i don't know.

scott

[Guest]

Nope, I think your approach is spot on. Life's too short as it is as far as I'm concerned :yes: