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Scale documentation

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Hemi Steve:
I'm nearing the completion of my authentic scale Nats entry and I'm at an important decision point and need some advice.  I have all of my documentation lined up and I have all of the color chips for the proper RLM colors.  The problem is that the chips do not match the color photos.  The full scale aircraft is a Smithsonian restoration and I have details from the restoration that identifies the colors they used which are consistent with other sources for the aircraft.  But the lighting at the museum causes a color shift in photos.  For example, the RLM76 (light blue) looks like a light bluish grey.  I can adjust the paint to match the photos but any judge who knows his stuff will know that the grayish RLM76 is wrong.  I've got some Dave Platt advice that you never use color pictures in your documentation (probably to deal with this problem). So......

Alternative 1
Paint the model to match the color chips and use black and white photos and an excerpt from the NASM restoration write up describing the colors they used.

Alternative 2
Alter the paint to match the color photos and explain the difference between the chips and the model color as the desire to have the model match the pictures.

Alternative 3
Paint the model to match the chips, use the color photos and use the lighting argument to explain the difference in color between the model and the pictures.

Anybody have some advice on this.  I'm thinking I'm not the first guy with this problem.

Steve

bob whitney:
I was told by a world class scale builder that this is the reason he NEVER uses color photos .

remember that color photo's over ride anything on your 3 views. my 3 views said blue trim but the photo looked more gray and I got dinged

Avaiojet:
Steve,

I did quite a bit of air brush art for the WWF, World Wrestling Federation, back in the day and the WWF, being a large corporation, they had many guidelines I had to follow with managing their colors especially if the colors went to a print medium. Not just colors but, in some cases, few actually, design and composition also.

In the trade it's called "color management." Yes, it can get complicated especially in the print medium when dealing with different types of printing equipment. Much much more difficult today because there's more contraptions that share color imagery. Digital cameras are just one example and monitor color accuracy is another. I'm keeping this simple, a little long, but simple.  LL~

I have to say this. Sure, I never entered a model in a scale contest or put together scale documentation for a model, but I know color management and I know this well.

You have to as a professional if you do art for corporations like the WWF, Budweiser and Volvo. I did art for all three including many advertising agencies dealing with their specifications with color management, over many years. You simply have to get the color correct. Yes, they all paid me quite handsomely. They paid for my sports cars and aircraft over many years. ;D

So, I view your issue as a simple one.

Document all colors as best you can, color chips, and possibly back this up with letters of authenticity where possible. Use this acquired information, color chips letters, etc.

Paint your model based on the documented information you have acquired to a tee, that is, as exact colors as possible which were used on the aircraft. "Perfect" in fact based on your research and your file full of great accurate stuff!

If a Judge doesn't realize color photos taken at different times of the day or interior lighting, renders variation in color, same with printed copies, then he shouldn't be a Judge. Or she. PERIOD!

I may be wrong, but I strongly believe your job isn't to educate the Judge, but to put on "display" an extreme presentation which is as accurate as the full scale aircraft you're modeling, including colors.

I hope this helps.

Got photos?

Charles

chuck snyder:
Steve,
I would suggest you use the color chips and identify your museum source that links the chips to your model. If you have to use the photos for some purpose, such as the style of markings, then make a note next to the photo that it is only for the style and not the color. This is pretty much your "Alternative #1."

I have judged models that used photos for color documentation and found it to be very challenging. There can easily be 3 or 4 different shades of the color in one photo depending on location on the prototype and the way sunlight or artificial light falls on the subject. What color should the judge compare to? I Can't speak for other judges, but if you confuse this one with your documents, you will lose points.
Chuck

Dan McEntee:
  Hi Steve;
    Contact Allen Goff or Fred Cronenwett directly about this. Allen is the ED for Scale at the NATS, and Fred writes the Scale column for Model Aviation magazine. Both are veterans of many Scale NATS and will steer you in the right direction, especially for Authentic Scale.
 
   I have played around with Profile Scale just a bit. I have learned from Fred and from Bob Underwood, who was a LONG time national and world champs level R/C scale modeler and scale column writer for several magazines and former AMA technical director, to make sure your model matches your documentation, and vice versa. Photos of military aircraft from a long time ago probably have the color washed out from multiple reproductions, or the subject  was worn and weathered. If you can document that the subject was worn and weathered, I would make the model match the subject. That is what they are supposed to be judging. You just have to hope you don't get a judge that can't read, or that he thinks that he knows more about the subject aircraft than you do.
  Good luck and have fun !
  Dan McEntee

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