I enjoy building 1/350 and 1/700 scale ship models. Is there a general rule of thumb
or formula for scale effect when painting. This is my first time on the forum, Thanks you
for any replies.
Hi scriblee
If you do a search on “scale color effect” in the search box at the bottom of these pages you should find lots of posts about it.
Chris
I don’t think there is. Reason being, scale effect color is highly controversial. I don’t believe in it for the following reasons:
- Pigment ground to scale fineness, regardless of it’s original color would be dark gray to black.
- Pigment viewed at 800X is the same color as when viewed with the naked eye.
- Surface microtexture and the source of light are critical to what the eye and brain perceive as a given color. If you make two paints with identical pigment in identical amounts, but one is gloss and the other is flat, they will look like different colors, especially to the untrained eye.
As for my bona fides (mentioned because you are new here): I was a paint formulator chemist and paint technologist, and a microscopist. I’ve worked in or with the field of coatings technology all my professional life. The three items I mentioned, above are all from direct experience as well as theory.
That being said, all paint fades with time and exposure. Some paints change color due to changes in the binder and/or the pigment. So unless your ship is just out of the yard, the paints should be faded—and some may be very different than originally.
Bottom line: If it looks “right” to you, it is.
Oh yeah, welcome aboard!! This is a FUN place!!!
Chris
Generally speaking, I’m with Ross about the validity or rather lack thereof about the “scale effect” With ships though, it seems like they are always so well lit up by the sunlight and perhaps reflections from the water as well, that to my eye, they appear to be lighter when seen from a distance than what their actual color is. As far as how much, I certainly don’t have any set formula. I would say try to find paint that “looks” right paying more attention to the relative contrasts between colors rather than the actual colors themselves.
The more humidity, dust, smoke etc… in the air and the farther you are from a subject the more scale effect takes place. In the real world it is all the stuff in the air between you and the object, Not including normal paint fade that you are compensating for. I lived in Florida and on a hot humid day you could easily see this haze effect looking at the trees across a large field. That said, scale effect would be more practical on a ship(seen from farther away) than a car(seen up close). However for the most part paint fade is probably more of a cause to change a color than scale effect at the scaled distances we view our models.[2c] Greg.
You make a good point, Greg. What you are referring to is atmospheric scatter, and it affects everything we see in atmosphere, even in the clearest air. It is one of the primary causes of ambient light, and softens shadows.
This isn’t so much a scale effect, although on figure models, it’s a real problem. Not so much scale color, as scale shadow.