Very interesting observation made by my 18 year old the other night. He just started his major in visual art after attending a high school for art for 4 years. He has genes I have no idea where they came from. Makes me look at the mailman sometimes a little funny. Just joking, he got them from my talented wife. Anyway, he visits from his dorm room periodically and comes directly to my model room in the basement. He says the other night, you know, these planes look like plastic. What are they supposed to be made of? I went through the long lecture about fabric or metal. He said, look at metal in the sun in the shade, it doesn’t look like that. He gave me a long speech about shading and making it look more real. I have to agree, he had a point. I know it can be done becasue I have seen things in FSM that look real when phootographed outside. So, just when I thpought I was making headway after 22 1:48 scale done, it is back to the drawing board. I gotta learn to paint and shade with more careful attention to realism and not just getting an even coat of paint.
It’s a difficult art we are involved into. It’s all about ‘trompe l’oeil’ or ‘faux art’, and that’s why overweathering and over-everything is popular… People like Verlinden have built empires and fortunes on it…
Well, the 18-year-old has a point, but things aren’t as drastic as he makes them seem. I’m a member of the Mid Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, PA, so I get to see vintage planes pretty much as often as I want to. They have a Navy version of the Stearman biplane trainer used in WWII.
It’s fabric covered, and I noticed that the glossy paint makes the plane look like it’s covered in … plastic!
Panel lines, rigging wires on biplanes, and other features we agonize over are often not very visible on real aircraft when seen at a distance. That’s not to say that weathering or rigging on models is a bad thing, just that it’s easy to overdo it and end up with that as the focus rather than the model itself.
My opinion only…
Regards,
-Drew
I tend to agree with Lufberry, after years of seeing superb even fantastic works in the magazines and books and elsewhere on display I decided it would be nice if I could accomplish something on this scale but if I don’t so what. It is supposed to be a Hobby. I’ve found that others viewing my work are struck by it, even though I know it could have been better by doing this or that. I never feel that any model when I’m finished is really perfect. Maybe someday I’ll get there.
This is a question that is as old as static models.
If you are a model soldier fan then shading is the way that it is done.
There are a few rules that apply, namely that shadows all come from the same side.
If I were building an aircraft I would not bother with shading because as an object it will be viewed from all sides. However if it was to be in a diorama then serious consideration would have to be given to shadows and shading.
But in the end its all up to you.
Dai
Hey all,
Just like someone said here, “Its just a hobby”.
Everybody has there own way of representing a model and that is perfectly fine!! As long as you get the enjoyment out of what your doing plus you have something to show for after.
I myself like to be creative when it comes to building. Like Dai Jones said, “in the end its all up to you”
Flaps up,Mike