discussion Spitfire colour question

[John]

I'm just painting a Airfix Spit Supermarine MkI the book says to use dark earth and dark green as the camo colours but it doesn't look right it looks too dark, so I'm going to prime it again and respray it, what colours would work best? btw I'm using ModelAir for the first time and I'm quite impressed with the finish.

 

[stona]

Those are the correct names for the colours. I don't have any paints to look at at the moment but whatever brand you use they'll look darker on a model than on a full scale "machine". The Xtracrylix RAF colours I use (from you!) are very well matched to sample chips at the RAF museum but need significant lightening to look right even at 1/32 scale. On the Kittyhawk in my 1/72 diorama I would estimate I added about 30% white to the basic upper surface colours.

It's where the art comes in and the science goes out through the window and is very subjective.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Guest]

It's always interesting to think about scaling colours as I think a lot of modellers don't realise how the effect works. Similarly I think a lot of modelllers don't realise the effects of scale on surface texture as well and insist using a gloss finish when painting in small scales, which don't really look right.

 

[John]

Thanks I will lighten the brown up, then the green should be ok but as it is at the moment I don't think there's enough contrast between the two

 

[stona]

It's all terribly subjective. It's well known that our perception of a colour is very much affected by its context,in the case of a typical camouflage scheme this would mean the adjacent colour. There was a good Horizon recently about various sensory illusions which included some good demonstrations of this. I don't remember the title but it was episode 4 of the current series and well worth checking on the BBC iplayer.

In the end,after all the research in the world (and I'm one of the worse offenders) you have to go with what looks right.

Cheers

Steve

It was called "Is seeing believing"