alan2525

It's interesting to think about what is meant by the term scale modelling. On the face of it it's pretty self explanatory but when looking at the way the model will be viewed and the scale, the viewers eyelevel etc, is normally nothing akin to the experience of the real thing, take for example a King Tiger tank, the actual vehicle in a museum, very impressive but obviously most of the vehicle is unable to be seen and pretty much most of it's above eyelevel, a scale model on the other hand gives you a real all in one view of the thing that would be very seldom experienced in reality.

The same applies to the way models are weathered and painted, with accents to the detail to almost make a subtle caricature of the the real thing. It's a bit like the makeup actors wear on a stage production, which has to look good from a particular distance.

Sometimes we have to almost over enhance a particular characteristic of the actual subject in order to make it even look like the real item at the much reduced scale.

I also find it a little amusing how, often in museums, military vehicles are kept in a showroom condition, painted with gloss paint, either lovingly cared for or the other extreme daubed with a little of whatever colour paint was left in the can over the rusty bits. When in france I saw a us armoured car that had had it's very perished looking tyres painted white to "tidy it up a bit", it's quite strange when the real vehicles look less like the real thing that what the models are trying to portray!

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