We’ve all been there. You’ve spent ages scrolling through websites, holding paint pots up to the light, and comparing charts to find the perfect shade of Olive Drab for your new Sherman tank. You finally get the airbrush out, lay down a beautiful, smooth coat and… it just looks wrong. It’s too dark, too green, or just doesn’t have that something you were picturing.
You’re not going crazy, and it’s probably not a bad batch of paint. The truth is, the colour you see in the pot is rarely the colour you get on the model. Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of colour perception, where what you see isn’t always what you get. But don’t worry! Once you understand the little tricks that light, scale, and even your own brain play on you, you can take control and get the results you want.
This is more than just a quick tip list; it’s a deep dive into the ‘why’. Understanding these principles will change how you approach painting forever.
This is the big one, the concept that can elevate a good model to a great one: the scale effect. We touched on it before, but let’s really unpack it.
In the real world, objects that are far away look paler, less detailed, and slightly bluer than they do up close. Think about looking at a distant range of hills; they appear as hazy, light blue-grey shapes, even though you know they are covered in rich green trees and dark brown earth up close. This is caused by the atmosphere – tiny particles of water and dust in the air that scatter light. This phenomenon is often called ‘aerial perspective’.
How does this apply to your 1/72 scale Spitfire? Well, in a way, you are viewing that Spitfire from a great distance. If you were looking at a real Spitfire from far enough away for it to appear the same size as your model, aerial perspective would have taken effect. Therefore, to make our models look realistic and not like toys, we need to replicate this. A model painted in the exact, factory-fresh colour of the real thing will almost always look too dark and too saturated.
How to Do It – The Basics:
Have you ever seen a model of a tank that seems to have different shades of the same colour on different panels? That’s likely Colour Modulation. This is the scale effect taken to the next level. Instead of lightening the colour for the whole model, you vary the shade on different areas to enhance the model’s shape and create visual interest.
This technique is especially effective on subjects with a single overall colour, as it prevents them from looking flat and boring. It’s an artistic interpretation, for sure, but it’s rooted in the real-world physics of light.
Have you ever painted a model under your warm, yellowish desk lamp, only to see it in natural daylight the next day and find the colour has completely changed? That’s because light itself has a colour, known as its ‘colour temperature’. Here’s a fun fact for your next model club meet: this phenomenon has a scientific name, Metamerism. It’s what happens when two colours look the same under one light source, but different under another.
How to Do It:
Those little colour squares on the paint pot lid, in a printed catalogue, or on a website are, at best, a rough guide.
Why are they so inaccurate?
The single most useful tool in your paint arsenal is the ‘paint mule’. Never go straight to your model with a new colour. Grab a piece of scrap plastic – an old model part, a spare wing, or the modeller’s classic choice: a set of plastic spoons. Prime it, paint it, and clear-coat it exactly as you plan to with your actual model. Only then will you see the true final colour.
Your brain actively interprets the colours your eyes see, and one of its favourite tricks is to adjust colours based on what’s next to them. This is called simultaneous contrast.
This directly affects your models, especially those with camouflage. On a German WWII tank, the Dunkelgelb (dark yellow) will appear a different shade where it borders the Rotbraun (red-brown) compared to where it borders the Olivgrün (olive green). When you’re choosing your colours, don’t just look at them in isolation. If possible, paint them on your test mule next to the other colours they’ll be sitting with on the final model.
As if all that wasn’t enough, the final variable is you. The simple fact is that we don’t all see colour in exactly the same way, and our perception changes as we get older.
The final varnish you apply has a massive impact on the perceived colour. It’s not just for protection; it’s the final step in your colour-crafting process.
Applying that final matt coat can be a nerve-wracking moment, as it often seems to knock back your weathering effects. Don’t panic. Let it dry completely. Often, the effect will partially return, just more subtle and realistic.
Don’t get bogged down in the endless online debates about the exact historical paint code. Paint faded, it varied between batches, and as we’ve just discussed, not everyone even sees colour the same way. There is rarely one single “correct” colour.
Your goal should be a believable colour, not a mythical perfect match. Does it look right to you? Does it convey the sense of scale, the environment, and the story you want to tell?
Embrace the process. Lighten your colours for scale, work under good light, always test on a mule, and be mindful of how colours and finishes interact. After all, it’s your model, and the only person it needs to look right to is you. Now, go and get some paint on some plastic!