scale effect

[Ironwing]

Greetings All,

 

Jean Cote brought up an interesting point in my build thread. In his comments, mentioned "scale effect". It would be interesting to hear from the membership about this and what they believe it to be or how they define it.

 

Hope everyone is well...

 

Geoff

[Guest Rigor]

I would have to say size but it's a fine line, i think because know two models will be the same. you know, i say that, you say this, type of thing dont get me wrong it's not a car show where you are trying to win the 100+ points resto,

[johng]

Authors Merrick and Hitchcock offer a good explanation of scale effect in regards to paint in their Official Monogram Painting Guide To German Aircraft. Too long to quote here, but it's on pages 6 & 7 for those who have the book.

[Derek B]

Talk about leading questions! (trust you Geoff ). If you are talking about model components, it probably refers to the finesse and fidelity of the part in a given scale when compared to the full sized item (e.g. undercarriage door thicknesses, propeller blades, trailing edge thicknesses, cockpit coaming, etc). Obviously, due to the limitation of injection moulding techniques and tooling, the smaller the scale of the model, the less finese or filigree accuracy fine parts will have. However, the larger the scale of the model, the more accurate the scale detail (compare, say, a Mustang canopy thickness and detail in 1/144 scale to one in 1/32 scale). In terms of camouflage and finishes, it is how much the paint work is lightened/adjusted in hue and colour to allow for the scale effect (the actual 'real' colour applied to a 1/144 scale model would look much too dark, so it needs to be 'lightened' to look right - each scale requiring a specific amount of lightening). I'm sure that the more knowledgable people within LSP will expand on this topic.

 

HTH

 

Derek

[Silver Dollar]

Derek, I like your explanation so far. In my mind, scale effect is that sometimes elusive quality (at least for me) that when you take a good picture of the finished model, makes it difficult for the viewer to tell if "is it live or is it Memorex". That's one reason why I'm always taking progress shots on the model whether or not I'm going to post it. If I can throw that picture in front of someone and fool them, then I throw that picture in front of you guys to tell. When I can fool the experts, then I've achieved scale effect. I'm no where near that point yet.

[Texas]

HI One thing I would like to mention as to scale effect is to take a photo of a aircraft and size it to a model scale and see what shows up.

 

Texas

[D Bellis]

I've always heard/read of "Scale Effect" being the lightening of paints to compensate for the natural haze in air over a given scale distance. There are percentages of white to add to any given color based on the scale of the model (1/32, 1/48, etc...) in order to render colors that (supposedly) appear more accurate. More info HERE.

 

Used the process once on a 1/72 model long ago, and will never make that mistake again.

 

D

[LSP_Kevin]

Derek and D have more or less summed it up for me, but I will add one thing. I think it's important to tone things down on a scale model, in order to avoid a toy-like look. Desaturated colours, avoiding pure gloss or pure flat, avoiding pure blacks and (to a lesser extent) pure whites all helps to mitigate the 'Fisher Price look' that models can suffer. I remember reading about a photographic processing technique whereby you take a real scene and make it look like a photo of a model/diorama. Among the things you needed to do to make this work was to significantly brighten and saturate the colours, because, in the author's words, modellers always paint their models in over-bright, saturated colours! In his mind it's a giveaway, and his techniques for replicating it proved the point I think.

 

Kev

[ScottsGT]

When I was building/flying RC aircraft, Dave Platt had this down to an artform with his airplanes he built. He would accentuate areas of an aircraft that would otherwise be lost in the actual scale, and reduce the size of some areas that would just look out of place, even though it was correct. It is hard to pinpoint what area on a scale model needs these areas of attention, but it does add to the overall effect.

[MikeMaben]

There are many variables involved but it goes something like this:

When you look at your model (1/32 scale of course) there is a specific distance

from your eyeball to the model. If you had a real full size version of your model

in front of you and walked backwards until it looked exactly the same size as

your model, what you would see would be called 'scale effect'. It would include

everything you could see with your naked eyes. Colors, details (you know, like panel lines)

would look different than they would as you started walking closer and closer.

So the goal in trying to achieve 'scale effect' is to make your 1/32 scale model

look (from some 'X' distance from your eye) like what the real thing would look

like if it were that same distance from your eyes, times 32

 

sound reasonable ?

 

...well that's the way 'eye' seez it

[Radub]

sound reasonable ?

 

I always had a problem with the idea of "scale colour" eversince I read about it in Hitchcock's book.

The theory sonds reasonable ONLY if you place a velvet rope 3 feet in front of your model and place a card saying "To be viewed only from 3 feet". What happens when you get closer? How about when you go further away? How do you tone down (or... up...?) the colour? Ideally, this theory works only in very controlled situations such as museum dioramas where you can control the viewing distance and lighting.

Radu

[AEROPOXY]

Good question.

 

I use scientific approach called T.L.A.R.

Which means:

 

"That Looks About Right"

 

Usually, just a drop of white add in final coat of clear dope, overspraying more on model undersurfaces, less on vertical tail and fuselage sides and even less on wing/tail topsides.

This gives satisfying shades on the finished model.

 

Never managed to exactly mix 10/20/30% of white in model paints, using scale effect formulas.

[johng]

Thanks, J. You put into 3 paragraphs what took more than 1 page to explain in the Monogram guide.

 

As for myself, I do understand the explanation and agree with it, but I don't necessarily like the look of using the effect on larger models. It's just a personal feeling. When I got back into modeling late last year, I'd found that many of my paints had to be replaced from the old stash so I drove out to the nearest LHS. The choice of brands was limited to ModelMaster and Tamiya. I'd used a lot of Tamiya acrylics in the past and wasn't that impressed with them so I bought all of the German camo colors from the MM line of acrylics. When I got home with them and started stirring them up I discovered that the paints did not match the chips that were on the rack in the store. The chips were true colors but many of the actual paints seemed to be lighter to give scale effect. I confirmed this by comparing the paint to chips in the Monogram guide. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy about this situation and will be looking for another source of camo paints from a different line.

[LSP_Kevin]

Those in the modelling fraternity who don't believe it, or don't believe in using it are, well, dopes.

 

While I can agree with the first clause in your sentence, the second is merely insulting. Not believing it and choosing not to use it are two different things. Modellers choose to finish their models in a variety of ways, and for a variety of reasons, most of which have nothing to do with being a 'dope' or otherwise.

 

Kev

[MikeMaben]

In short: The atmosphere is not perfectly clear. It has particulates in it. The effect of looking at a distant object through air containing those particulates is that colors tend to become less saturated (ie: they look more greyed out).

 

That 'is' a key part of it. It's the light reflecting off of those particulates and other surfaces like

the ground or surrounding objects and the object itself that cause the effect.

I guess you could say that goes without saying.

 

And remember, it doesn't apply to colors only.