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 SYSTEMModern Swedish Paint and colour spectrum based system.

Cie (Lab) Colours SystemPaint and colour spectrum based system used in industry and laboratories.

Munsell ColorPaint and colour spectrum based system.

PantoneInk 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 BlindnessWe 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 – KodakGermany - Agfa

Differences:Orthochromatic Panchromatic

Some Picture examples

Model Paint ManufacturersHumbrol , 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 ColoursFS33070 (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 ColoursDitzler 1940 OD 22However, 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.

USAAF OD 41Olive 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.

T-1213 Supplement BIn 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.

In both cases, OD was called OD9.

3-F 1943 OD 319 and 3-1F 1943 -50In 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.

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

OLIVE GREEN 220

OLIVE DRAB 298

South African ColoursWW2 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.

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

Light Admiralty Grey No 697 aka Sky Blue

Sky No 210 aka Duck Egg Green aka Blue-Grey aka Sky-Green

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