Scale color tones

Tojo72

I really don't sweat that detail at all.

 

Me neither. I read a very good argument against it many years back and have not worried about it ever since.

I agree that some adjustments should be made, but any formulaic approach is not justifiable.

1. Tinting strength varies from color to color. So adding 10% white will have a different effect on red than it will on, well, any other color.

2. Adding white isn't always the best way to lighten a color. Too much white can make some colors look powdery and dull. I prefer to lighten olive drab by adding yellow ochre.

Think about building an SR-71 in 1/144 scale. If you add 72% white to black, you will get a medium to light gray. That won't look right on an SR-71.

So how much to lighten will depend on many factors. You may also have to consider that the lighting will be different in each venue you display your model in. That may have more effect on perceived color than scale effect.

It will be a matter of training your eye to see what looks right on your model. Myself, I only worry about the dark colors: black, olive drab, navy blue, etc.

In my opinion, those mixes are way too extreme.  The scale effect is so small at the scale of most models that it is not needed.  Only in ship scales, 1:350 or 1:700 is it noticable.

If the haze, or visibility is so low as to lighten colors that much, it would be perceived as fog, and also cut down on perceived detail, yet know one sands all the detail off their models.

For a better understanding of scale effect, though it isn't called that in this book, look at Middleton's Vision Through the Atmosphere.

Tojo72

I really don't sweat that detail at all.

 

I agree. Who really cares if it's the correct tone/color?

Hello!

I care! But I also think this cannot be proven in any definite way. So that colour has to look right TO ME! I agree that it's sometimes good to lighten a colour a little if it looks too dark, but any set formula isn't necessary here. And let's not forget, that we then weather the beejeezus out of the model, so it changes the colour anyway. And it's OK, as long as the tendency is right. Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

I see no way that color can have "scale."  So I ignore the subject.

Thank You all for replying in both educational & passionate manners. If I take the sum of the opinions ,I gather that it's not too much to be concerned about.But if it's warrented by one's pesonal taste, that it would be more effectively done with a lighter shade of whatever color You are trying to give the alleged scale effect to.Also, it sounds like white would alter the color [ in most cases ] that You're trying to give the effect to. As mentioned about the SR-71 & many other colors ,albeit the amount of white mentioned in using I'm sure is very small. I should have thought 1st before posting just on the comment of how any washes,weathering,Etc. would probably negate such small influences. I appreciate the advice. Keith R.

Cadet Chuck

I see no way that color can have "scale."  So I ignore the subject.

 

The connection is through viewing distance.  At very long viewing distances the atmosphere does slightly lighten colors.  One can guess at a reasonable viewing distance for a model- say 2 feet.  Then the scale viewing distance is 2 times the scale.  For instance, for a 1:144 model that would be about 300 feet.  That usually is not enough to see noticable scale effect.  But for a 1:700 ship, that is over a quarter mile, and then you can indeed see some slight effect.  So small scale ships are the only thing I worry about scale effect for.

Scale effect would come into effect at some fraction of the measured visibility.  By half of the visibility you would probably notice it.  But then, " on a clear day you can see forever," and no scale effect.  If you are an optimist, and your models will always have a clear day, you can completely ignore it.

That being said, for real vehicles that sit outside a lot, chalking of paint does affect color once the vehicle sits outside a few months (especially with older paints/finishes), and I do weather my models to simulate paint chalking.

I can see and understand the "color scale effect" is for view distance. The percieved color for an object 1/4 mile away is different if that same object was 10 feet away. I get that.

 However, for me, when I paint a model I am not painting that object as if you were seeing it 1,2, or 5 miles away. I am just creating a miniaturized version which is to be viewed up to 5 feet away.

Now if my objective was to simulate some type of forced perspective, then I can see where I would want a "Color Scale" formula.

Just my 2 cents.