Model Paints & Colours William Marshall
Contents: • • • • • • • •
Colours Systems used in the RSA Model Paints Photography Olive Drab Mirage III colours Scale Colour 50 Shades of Colour Summary
Colour Systems • • • • • •
Natural Colours System Cie (Lab) Colour System Munsell Colour System Pantone RGB & CMYK The eye and its perception of colour
NCS Colour SYSTEM Modern Swedish Paint and colour spectrum based system.
Cie (Lab) Colours System Paint and colour spectrum based system used in industry and laboratories.
Munsell Color Paint and colour spectrum based system.
Pantone Ink based system for printers who print books and pamphlets.
RGB and CMYK Computer Monitor based system for showing electronic colours!
The eye and its perception of things
Blind spot
Colour Blindness We all see colour differently – specially with age!
Model Paints
Natural vs Chemical • Cosmetic/building industry demand for pigments • Natural pigment – time consuming to rework • Monopoly on deposits • Chemical – cheaper • Everybody could do it
What paint consists of?
Theory! • Pre 1980’s paint was based on natural pigments and ingredients. • Post 1980’s paint is chemically based with chemically produced pigments. • So today we modelers want to reproduce the natural colours using chemical pigment based equivalents. • It does not matter what colours you use it will be theoretically wrong. • So in actual fact all your model paint colours are wrong and it does not matter which colour you use!
Photography WW2 two black and white film types used: a. Panchromatic Sensitive to full spectrum of colour. b. Orthochromatic Sensitive to blue colours – turned yellow and red black Colour Photography in General Use USA – Kodak Germany - Agfa
Differences: Orthochromatic
Panchromatic
Some Picture examples
Model Paint Manufacturers Humbrol , Revel, Tamiya, Testors, Vallejo, etc, etc, etc. Spending money on research? Economy of scale? Accuracy? Equivalents? Own mixes! Own chips!
Determine colour from B & W Photo’s • • • • • •
Documents Order & Instructions Photo’s (type of film used) Relics Factory & Stores Info Things to avoid: – – – –
The human eye. The human mind. Other peoples research. The Internet.
Olive Drab • The Pullman Company – manufactured railway cars for the US market.
Model Colour - Olive Drab • In modeler terms, Tamiya Olive Drab 62 is about as close to US Lustreless Olive Drab (WW2) as Panzer Grey is to Dunkelgelb (M. Holoboski).
Formula for OD • Olive drab is mixed predominantly with Yellow Oxide and Lampblack, and a small amount of Red pigment is added.
US Standards for OD • Federal Standard (FS 595 B) post WW2 • WW2 - US Army 3-1 Specification
• Corps of Engineers Colours FS33070 (FS575a) - Closest match
• USAAF specification • Marine Corps Green USMC colour “No.23 Marine Corps Green” came from “the old Yards and Docks list of colours”. It was as common as OD on USMC vehicles and matches FS595a, FS24052.
US Olive Drab Colours Ditzler 1940 OD 22 However, in 1938, when the Army started taking a liking to flat OD, there was a color change to med. green khaki OD for vehicles. Ditzler renamed this color as OD22 in their corporate color charts.
T-1213 Supplement B In 1941, the Corps of Engineers were developing camouflage colors (primarily for fabric & infrastructure inspired by the Blitz), and issued the color card T-1213 in mid December, 1941. Two samples were provided, one standard chip, and one on fabric.
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In both cases, OD was called OD9
3-F 1943 OD 319 and 3-1F 1943 -50 In Jan. 1943, when release of the new 3-1 consolidated color card was imminent (and Ordnance was taking over tank paint specs from QM), a new OD was declared to be ‘Lusteless OD', color 319.
USAAF OD 41 Olive Drab 41 of Bulletin 1941, is darker and greener than FS 34087. Was a 1950s colour used on vehicles, helicopters and small aircraft of the US Army, it is not the wartime colour. The wartime colour is nearest matched by FS33070 in FS 595b and US Army Air Corps Olive Drab 41.
Manufactures Interpretation
British Equivalents • ANA • SCC 15 Apparently written sometime between April and August 1944. April is when SCC 15 Olive Drab was promulgated in A.C.I. for change of basic colour for forthcoming operations in NW Europe.
• Olive Green
• BSC – 1931, 1948, 1952, 1964, 1996 versions
South African Colours WW2 up to and including 1962 – British Standards. 1970 – British Standards moving to SABS 1091 which was a change to locally produced standards and paint colours. 1996 – NCS from Sweden – currently still in effect.
OLIVE GREEN 220
OLIVE DRAB 298
Dark Earth change
Modern Quad Colour Camouflage MIL SPEC 42 • Military Dark Earth • Buffalo Green • Buffalo Beige • MRG Stone
Mirage III & F1 Camou
SAAF 2 Sqn letter
809
819
814
Sky-Blue Undersides ???
Differences • Kalahari Sand (aka Buff) and Desert Sand (Light Stone)
• Olive Drab and Dark Green (aka Olive Green)
Sky vs Sky Blue vs LAG Sky No 210 aka Duck Egg Green aka Blue-Grey aka Sky-Green
Light Admiralty Grey No 697 aka Sky Blue
Specification
Scale Colour ? • Take for example a 1/72 scale aircraft model, where 1 inch on the model equals 6 feet on the real object. • In other words, a model with an 8 inch wingspan scaled up 72 times would equate to a full size aircraft with a 48 foot wingspan. • By this logic, viewing a model from an average distance of 12 inches would equate to looking at the real thing from a distance of 72 feet. • Similarly, a 1/48 scale model viewed from the same distance would be like looking at the real thing from a distance of 48 feet. • According to the scale colour rulebook, paint hues change proportionate to the distance from the viewer, therefore a 1/72 scale model would need to have its paint altered by a greater percentage than a 1/48 scale model because it represents an object viewed from a greater distance.
Scale Colour Rules • • • •
Ian Huntley – Scale Aircraft Modeling 1/72 = 15% 1/48 = 10% 1/35 = 8%
In Effect!
1/72 = 15%
1/48 = 10%
1/35 = 8%
50 Shades of Colour! • When viewing a real vehicle or plane you will notice multiple shade of the same colour. • Why only paint your vehicle one colour?
Summary • • • • • • •
WW2 – BSC colour system 1976 – SABS 1091 1990s – NCS Model Paints Photography Scale colour ?? Do Primary Research
Questions ? Next Presentation: Judging Models & IPMS Judges Handbook Oct 2015