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Is the era of weathering over?


Woody V

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On 11/23/2022 at 12:25 AM, Confusionreigns178 said:

Surely, as a hobby, this past-time should be what the individual model-maker wants to make it? If you want to produce a model to have a "just-rolled-off-the-production-line" look, that's great. If you want to make something that's been in numerous battles, with very obvious damage, dirt, scrapes and other "wear-and-tear", that's also a cool thing. 

 

I find that the idea that models have to look a certain way a very "artificial" one. It's simply a matter of personal opinion, surely? 

 

This is a hobby, folks - not a crusade.

 

Cheers. 

 

Chris.  

 

Two schools of thought here, and if that's possible I'm in both of them.  One says that if you want to paint your model sky-blue-pink with purple dots then that's your privilege.  I have absolutely no problem with that.  There is also the school of thought that says a model should be historically faithful to the original.  I have no problem with that either.  Where I do have a problem is those who do the first, then either actively or passively allow others to believe that that sky-blue-pink-with-purple-dots model is historical fact, perpetuating modelling myths and misinformation.

 

You can't do both - but there are exceptions such as 8th AF assembly ships. :coolio: :piliot:

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25 minutes ago, MikeC said:

Where I do have a problem is those who do the first, then either actively or passively allow others to believe that that sky-blue-pink-with-purple-dots model is historical fact, perpetuating modelling myths and misinformation.

People actually do this? Very strange. In our instant information age, the existence of a special-scheme can conformed in a matter of seconds, whilst standing by the model in question. I've seen a number of "what-if" schemes at model-shows and the builders have always happily admitted it was not real. 

 

Cheers. 

 

Chris. 

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21 hours ago, Confusionreigns178 said:

People actually do this? Very strange.

I'm sure very few, if any, people set out to deliberately spread misinformation.  But mistakes by one can be copied and/or accepted as fact.  "Send three-and-fourpence, we're going to a dance".  For anyone who wonders what that is about, it's a classic example of corruption of a message as it gets passed from one to another: it starts off as "Send reinforcements, we're going to advance".

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I think weathering is a hugely subjective issue and depends entirely on what the modeller wants to achieve.
 

You will see some who faithfully copy a period photo to the letter and others who will shade every panel and highlight every line resulting in the patchwork quilt effect that never existed in any aircraft I’ve seen. 
 

However, as others have said, it doesn’t matter how you finish your model provided the builder enjoyed it and had fun. Most weathered finishes are totally out of scale and over done, but if the builder enjoyed it what does that matter?

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With regard to model painting, esthetics is highly subjective. Realism is in my opinion much more objective. Take a photo of your model outside, under natural light and from a good angle and close distance - if it looks like your reference you can probably consider it as "realistic". "Spanish school" models can be amazing from a technical point of view but they aren't realistic at all.

When it comes to photographic references, a common pitfall (especially for late war German subjects) is the use of reference photos of planes dumped in junkyards or abandonned in the nature - sometimes for months or years. This introduced a biais toward excessive wheathering I think  (e.g. Me 262).

Also, crap is not the same as wear and tear. A brand new aircraft can be very dirty but paint tonal variation will be almost null (or only due to dirt). An plane with hundred of flight hours will probably show tonal variations but could be perfectly clean.

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