Pre-Shading

[chuck540z3]

And in fact the majority of them I see are *lighter* than the surrounding paint due to touchups.

 

 

It can be anything, including on the same aircraft.  I took this Belgian Viper pic at Nellis AFB to show how almost anything goes with paint repair and oil staining.  Lighter, darker, along panel lines, not......etc.  Looks kind of "quilted" to me! 

 

 

Edited August 19, 2017 by chuck540z3

[Finn]

They did use black as a primer, at least on this A-6:

 

 

psst Chuck, it's a Dutch F-16 not a Belgian one.

 

Jari

[chuck540z3]

psst Chuck, it's a Dutch F-16 not a Belgian one.

 

Jari

Oops, my bad. A Belgian Viper did a demo so I got them mixed up.

 

Thanks,

Chuck

Edited August 19, 2017 by chuck540z3

[Finn]

No problem Chuck, probably all that smoke from the forest fires or birthday candles. Here is an F-105D in NMF and you can see all sorts of panel lines:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mdebock/8754696181/sizes/k/

 

Jari

[RLWP]

No problem Chuck, probably all that smoke from the forest fires or birthday candles. Here is an F-105D in NMF and you can see all sorts of panel lines:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mdebock/8754696181/sizes/k/

 

Jari

 

That's a great picture, what a brute!

 

Richard

[Intruder503]

I've never seen that photo of the Intruder! Interesting!

[Jeff T]

That's a great picture, what a brute!

 

Richard

I agree, great pic Jari!

 

Jeff.

[Chek]

I'll only add what my art teacher (who it turned out also taught my mum) told me 50 years ago.

 

Try to depict what you see.

 

It seems to me that many modelers copy their impressions of other models (bad) or over-simplify their impressions of photos of the real article (also bad).

Instead, attempt to treat your own model as unique and try to reproduce what a photo (or real life) shows you, and you won't go far wrong.

 

Too many online model photos show that the builder has gone down the caricature route and lost any wider credibility other than their own satisfaction (which is OK in the privacy of your own home).

[TwoHands]

I'll only add what my art teacher (who it turned out also taught my mum) told me 50 years ago.

 

Try to depict what you see.

 

It seems to me that many modelers copy their impressions of other models (bad) or over-simplify their impressions of photos of the real article (also bad).

Instead, attempt to treat your own model as unique and try to reproduce what a photo (or real life) shows you, and you won't go far wrong.

 

Too many online model photos show that the builder has gone down the caricature route and lost any wider credibility other than their own satisfaction (which is OK in the privacy of your own home).

WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER!

[LSP_K2]

They did use black as a primer, at least on this A-6:

 

Jari

 

The one A-10 that I seriously wanted to do, was this bad boy. A prototype scheme, it never caught on, but I still think it's totally cool. Flat white over flat black. (Scan from this D&S book.)

 

[FunkyZeit]

Great photos! Although, Touch up paint and pre-shading is wildly different.

[Haggis]

Pre-shading; utterly pointless and wholly unrealistic. There are far easier, and much more effective methods to get a realistic finish. Aeroplanes do not end up with consistent, dark shadows (even subtle ones) over the entire airframe.

[ericg]

It is a tool in the toolbox of techniques, nothing more, nothing less.

 

Eric

[BarryWilliams]

Anything done to excess can look wrong. 

 

I do pre-shade panels and where it sometimes goes wrong is in looking too even, too much like a quilt. 

 

Pre-shading for me is to display,on the small surface area of a model, the play of light that you would get over the much larger original.  The colour varies as you look at the full size subject with light reflection coming from different angles. Pre-shading needs to be subtle bring out a lighter shade on area that would catch the light and darker in corners and areas that would catch less light.  It can be effective to use panel lines for delination as long as it is subtle, not too neat and does not just rigidly follow them.  When combined with other methods to modulate the colour, oil dots for instance, plus panel line washes and other washes to show dirt streaks it can be effective.

 

So yes, I agree, it is just part of the tool box.  No-one is right or wrong in this, sometimes it can look right or it can look wrong.  Do whatever works for you and that is a large part of the fun in this hobby.

Edited August 21, 2017 by BarryWilliams