I hope that this will not start a mile long thread but I have (yes) a Spitfire question. I want to build Duke Neville's Vb Trop QJ-R ER220. Color is Dark earth, Mid stone and....what? Azure blue or Mediterranean blue? Friend of mine claim that Azure blue was in shortage until Spit Vc show up, so anything earlier in desert should be Mediterranean blue underside. Photos of Vb's in desert show lighter color on some (I presume Azure blue) and darker color on other (probably Mediterranean blue). My conclusion is that both colors goes but since I model one particular aircraft and I don't have a photo of it can someone tell me which color is QJ-R underside?
The artist's original question delved into the possibility of there being no clear answer to his mystery. What you refer to as "faking it", is known in most art forms....as artistry.
What kind of lighting is his subject supposed to be represented in? Is he portraying the aircraft sitting in the sand at noon, or at dusk? What are the weather conditions? What is the actual lighting the artist will be painting under? What are the lighting conditions of the intended display venue? All of these are just as important to consider, as the "correct" color.
Does Mr. Wooten use the "correct" colors in his beautiful paintings of WWII aircraft in their natural environment? No, he takes into consideration each of the points I mentioned above, as well as dozens of others I have overlooked. Model building is no different. It is an art form. It just happens to be three-dimensional.
The point is to finish the subject in a way so that its "accuracy" (if that even exists in our context) does not come into question. With artistic, and believable, shading, highlighting, weathering, fading, etc....one can reach a point that no one can say "Oh...that is too purple... he used the wrongcolor".
And that is my main gripe with the IPMS "concept": A failure to recognize that model-building IS an art, as well as a form of "engineering". Why modelers will not consider themselves "artistic", and their work as "art" is one of life's greatest mysteries.
Shep Paine, as you well know, is a GREAT "model builder". He is also a great "artist". The two are really one and the same.
Why is the "diorama purpose" the only venue in which lighting and presentation have a meaning?
If you were to come into possession of the "Mona Lisa", would you simply thumb-tack it onto the wall? I hope not. I would hope you would put careful thought into framing it appropriately, and displaying in lighting conditions that are favorable....
...yet, modelers simply build a model, and set it on a table at a show, not even on a base (at least representing its natural environment), and with no regards to lighting (or finishing it in a way to "simulate" the proper lighting of its natural environment). Modelers seem downright "afraid" being creative in these respects. IPMS has even been known to push the issue "abolishing bases". (which in my opinion, is tacet admission of saying "we are not capable of judging properly, since we are too easily swayed by bases, and other forms of presentation, and expression...")
You quite correctly mentioned the "scale effect". However, this scale effect encompasses much more than lightening colors. It also requires thought into accentuating shadows, and correcting for color shifts due to the natural environment....as well as dozens of other things.
For example, look at any car on a parking lot. You see a definite black line around the doors. This area is not really painted black (except on a black car), yet that IS the color that is seen.
Look at a car on an overcast day, as opposed to a bright sunny day. They are DIFFERENT colors. Neither one is more right or wrong than the other. Yet, the environment has heavily affected the "real" color.
Otherwise, the kit looks goofy. I saw once a beautyfull diorama of an wet c-47 on tarmac after the rain. Without the wet tarmac and water on the runway, the kit would look definitively wrong.
I did mine with Mediterranean Blue undersurfaces, but it was a matter of the taste rather. I know that it is hardly helpful in Duke's case, but there is one good way to recognize the underside color provided the underside NIs are visible. If the bottom color was Azure Blue, the RAF roundels under the wings were without any outline i.e. they were of the type 'C'. If the bottom color was Mediterranean Blue, the underside roundels were most probably surrounded with thin yellow outlines just like the fuselage roundels (i.e. 'C1' roundels).
This may be the same group I was referring to, as I remember it being a "Florida" nationals. I am not sure if it ever came to a "vote", but the "news reports" stated that members of the host club were seriously considering doing away with bases, vignettes, dioaramas, figures, ships, and others.
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