Distance Affect

The Distance Affect
Also called Scale Color

Though most specially blended paints for modeling are accurate, and most modelers like to paint their models to prototype colors, there is another thing to consider. It is call the "Distance Effect". As the scale of a model gets smaller, the color the plane would appear, changes. A common way of showing this is to take two pieces of black paper — one 12" X 12" and one 2" X 2" — outside on a sunny day. Place the larger one in the sun, and holding the small one at arm's length, move back from the larger one till they appear to be the same size as you look at them side by side. You will notice the one in your hand looks the same as it did, but the larger one that is farther away, appears to be lighter... almost a little grayish. And this is only 1/6 scale.

Painters have known and used this effect for more than a century to help show depth in their paintings.

If you build a 1/72 scale model airplane, and look at it from one foot, it is as if you were looking at the real plane from seventy-two feet. Since the Distance Effect would change what color the plane looks, you may wish to adjust the color of your model to take this into account.

Modelers have found that mixing some white into the paint you are using can accurately recreate the Distance Effect.

Model Scale

1/32

1/48

1/72

1/87

1/144

% White to Add

7 - 10%

10 - 25%

15 - 30%

20 - 35%

23 - 38%

These percentages are a fairly wide range because there is not always a lot of agreement over what looks best. But this should give you a good starting point... with some experimentation you should find what works best for you.

Some people suggest adding gray instead of white. And this does work fine. But most camouflage colors are already muted with gray, so I have preferred to use white... as do most modelers I think.

Notes added April 17, 2003

Interesting, but... Quoted from your website:

If you build a 1/72 scale model airplane, and look at it from one foot, it is as if you were looking at the real plane from seventy-two feet...

This is absolutely right, I'm sure but why then spend hours detailing the inside of the cockpit, the engine, some more placing the tiniest of stencils and spend yet some more hours doing weathering, ultra weathering and all that. At 72 feet above a open canopy, I'm wondering how much detail one would see...

I think it's all about illusion. Modeling is an illusion, giving life to something that should not look that much alive. And in order to do that, we need to accentuate things, such as bringing out details by dry-brushing techniques (and others). Since we are therefore cheating our (and other people's) eyes and brains, I'd think the scale effect is slightly irrelevant...

Something that interest me though, is why you would lighten, say a green color, with white..? Surely, a lighter green should be created with yellow instead. Adding white will only tone down the paint..? If I add 7% white to my red, I'll have a pink Ferrari, that will look nothing like what you could see on a picture, let alone in the real world...?

djmodels1999

The reference in that article about "as if" you were looking at it from 72 feet is only in reference to how that affects the apparent color.

If you want the authentic color to look real you'd have to get your eye to within an inch or so of the model... the distance affect is noticeable from even just a few feet away.

It all depends on if you want the color to BE correct, or to LOOK correct... and as pointed out, a model is an illusion; we want it to look correct.... the only thing that IS correct is the actual item you are modeling.

Most people I know who do this use white to lighten... though I would agree that light green (as in your example) would make more sense... but... is that light green lighter because it has white in it? I don't know.

7% would have a very very small affect, and on a 1/20 scale model... the lightening would be 5% or less... so I would not bother with it either.

BUT either way... this is just a matter of personal preference anyway... We build them to enjoy the process and the result. So what looks best to US is what really matters.

naplak

naplak is correct about the reason for the paint appearing lighter, it is the way the light is scattered as it passes through the air. This is the same reason that Green hills look like blue hills from 50km away. This is an extreme example, but it is the same thing. It is called 'Diffraction'. So yes, there is some science to scale effect.

However, my opinion is that it really only comes into play in a practical way for us modelers when you are talking about a model with different paint colours next to one another. Take any cammo scheme, and look at the aircraft at around 100 feet away, the colours blend into one another. It is only when you stand much closer that the contrast between the colours looks clearer.

On a 1/72 scale model, if you have the two colours straight out of the tins, the contrast between them is often too great. if they were both toned down a little, the contrast would be less and the 'Look' of the model would be closer to the real thing.

I would not advocate lightening up any colour if that was the model's over all colour, after all from one type of light to another (high contrast sunlight to dull overcast) the paint colour will appear different. It is the relative contrast between the colours as they appear next to one another that is the more important thing when it comes to scale effect.

These comments are based on my experience as an airforce photographer i.e. someone who has a practical understanding of light, and someone who works around aircraft all day.

As for lightening green paint with yellow verses white, you are after reducing the intensity of the colour, not strictly lightening it. To mix yellow would lighten the green, but the green would still have the same concentration of colour it had before, just lighter. Use white and you produce a less intense version of the green. Diffraction causes the colours to appear dull, this is one of the things the eye uses to interpret distance and perspective, that is why some modelers choose to imitate it when producing a little version of the original.

Phil

Thanks for that, Phil. True enough, a duller paint would indeed be the better choice..! I also see the point made about paints out of the tin being too stark. In fact, I often think to myself, particularly on multi-colored schemes, that the camo 'out of the tins' looks too bright. Particularly when a particular paint is compared to another, next to it. A bit of white might indeed help, and I'll give it a try next time. I don't fret about it because I know that this 'brightness' and this too stark difference between the various paints is greatly diminished with washes, which, in a way, tone down the whole thing. Dry-brushing with a single colour over the whole multi-coloured camo also helps reducing the sharp differences. Weathering, with dust, mud, stains,... just complete the process of 'blending' various colours into others...

djmodels1999

Landscape and portrait painters know about the distance effect, and use it in paintings--an object in the foreground is painted in actual close-up colors, and a distant object is painted in muted colors. However, in a small-sized painting of the same scene, the foreground object is still painted in actual close-up colors, I think--even though the small-sized painting is equivalent to a small-scale model of the real thing.

My take on it is that when I am looking at the model I built, I am imagining myself as being about as far away from the airplane as I would be when looking at airplanes at Oshkosh, or at a good aviation museum. The color I want to see on the model is the color I would see from ten or fifteen feet away, even though my eye is really only about fifteen inches from the object. To get this effect, I tone down the gloss of high-gloss finishes, and reduce the dullness of super-matte finishes, and sometimes slightly mute colors--but not nearly to the levels which would be appropriate if I were doing a painting in which the foreground about ten feet in front of the artist, and the airplane is 100 feet away, in the background.

Charlie Schaaf

The Shadow Effect

Related to the Distance Effect is the Shadow Effect. The contrast of light area to shadow area is exaggerated in scale models. Therefore I would recommend painting the undersides of wings, and the bottom one-third of the fuselage of planes about 20% lighter that the upper surfaces.

The Scale Shine Effect

Glossy and shiny surfaces also look out of proportion. I suggest using a semi-gloss finish on smaller scales, and a mix of semi-gloss and gloss on larger scale models.