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An Open Letter To Model Master/Testors

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Kurt Plummer

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Jun 28, 2000, 3:00:00 AM6/28/00

Greetings,

First, as a longtime user and fan of your
Model Master I and II range of military
spec'd paints, I just wanted to say Thank You
for providing such an excellent lineup of
F.S. colors.

However; I would like to make three
suggestions:

1. _Flat_ Black
Please Bring It Back! The stuff in the
currently labelled 37038 bottle is, at best,
a satin and more often comes out almost
gloss.

No Matter How Much I Shake It.

Because I often use this color, mixed with
white and blue, to spray tires as well as for
hand-brushed 'touch ups' in detail areas like
the raised sideconsole inserts and
instrument/screen surrounds of a cockpit, it
is better IMO, to have a constant-dull,
no-brushmark, color to do it with. I've
currently been using your Metallizer Gunmetal
and Titanium instead but while they flow very
well with good control (an example to run
with!) they tend to lighten over time and
occasionally have sparkly-effect 'grainage'.
Your spray is just fine so please, PLEASE, go
back?

2. Translucents, Metallines, Teflon
In a lot of aircraft areas like the
undersides of an F-15 you will see thermal
distress show up as almost a rippled
////wave/// or 'cloud' pattern of tonal
discoloration that varies from dull brown to
a yellow to a nearly caramel-translucent
'red' shade over a (barely visible) bright
metallic base. Unfortunately, you cannot
just spray a clear-yellow over the base coat
and any opaque color tends to dull and then
completely overcoat so that, instead of a
mirror-darkly effect of similar
reflectance<->different value between colors,
you get 'flat-bright-flat-bright' tiger
stripes.On yet other objects like AIM-9's the
gunmetal effect is itself translucent with a
brighter color 'showing through'.

'Metallines and Teflons' are names a friend
and I have coined for the latest new-jet: the
F-22.

Metallines are those colors which /look/
metallic but have no discernable 'sparkly
effect', being either gloss or satin but
utterly without a flake of any kind showing
in the base tone.

In the case of the F-22 this includes several
areas of subpanel in highgloss metal-plastic
electric-blue/purple color as well as (on #4
prototype, in production 'Top Coat' finish)
the overall base finish in pastel-purple
tone.

Teflons are colors which, like the above
translucents, range from a dull-gull grey
color to nearly black when viewed dead on but
have an almost golden-bright aluminum
underreflectance when 'glinted' at an angle
to the sun. Unlike Translucents, there is no
visible value/material change to this base
color (as from thermal distress) and the
overcolor are constant across the spectrum
(same value).

I must admit I don't know quite how to
achieve all of these options or whether you
can do it with one color or many. When I try
it myself in sequential layers, I'm often
disappointed for want of good mix of colors
or non-striped overspray on the topcoat.

One thing that comes to mind is a 'double
bottle, double nozzle' system which is,
either from can or from airbrush, designed to
mix two shades at differing rates of
application, in one pass. I think the swath
of a can might be workable (even preferable)
for some of the metallines/teflon main coats
but don't fancy the thought of trying to do
individual translucent subpanels (exhaust on
the F-15) or small components (AIM-120 wings)
withing a great gushing wash of 30psi paint
bomb. Ozone/Safety issues might also be a
concern as even the current Metallizer colors
have a -wicked- carrier odor to them.

3. Specularly Gradated Shades
How many versions of 'Gunship Grey' can there
be! This is a question which often bewilders
me as I work on some kit or another and
though the wild range of alternatives is not
limited to F.S.36118, this is the color I've
chosen to provide 'evidence' for through the
LINKS below.

What I hope you can see is that their are at
least three different effectants to the color
range. Having only the most basic of
artistic vocabulary let me define them my way
for you:

A. Constancy
How streaky or otherwise apt to color changes
/within a single tone/ the color is. Usually
as a function of extreme wear in a polluted
environment.

B. Value
Is it a blue, a purple or a grey?

C. Return
Does it seem to absorb light 'darkly'?
reflect it 'brightly' or hold to a
'pastel-dull' against the natural glare off
the backdrop colors?

In the case of the F-15E, it would seem that
much depends on the part of the plane and
it's age/operating condition. The radomes
are often darker while the conformal tanks
are sometimes 'bluer'. New jets are
blue-purple. Older jets or ones in very high
environments tend to become pastel-dull.
Dirty jets are almost black-grey and very
streaky with edge fades on aerosurfaces.

For the F-16C almost all 'new' colors are
intially contrasted blue (closer to 35164
than anything) to the surrounding 36270/36375
shades while later, they get almost
royal-blue or fade to a near slate-pastel
shade of the original. The almost /never/
look 'purple' like an F-15E.

The B-1B is perhaps the greatest enigma,
because it starts a very rich, very deeply
absorbative, blue color which can look almost
black but then, particularly with age tend to
'brighten' to an almost 36320 ghost-grey (sky
blue) shade. Their return is almost always
satin-semi gloss but the overall value
changes more than any other of the smaller
jets, for the background.

What I would like to see here is a /new
definition/ of color, not (totally) by
Federal Standards shade but by /airframe/.
Perhaps even as grouped sets of 'F-16Greys:
1,2,3' to help the younger crowd out or
possibly with 'new, used, other areas'
secondary mix bottles to help both the newer
modellers and the old hands get the most out
of what are increasingly becoming
all-one-shade other airplanes.

At one time you started down the right road
with the 'scaling white' colors but it would
be neat to see this taken another step (maybe
with website mixing instructions and
photo-jpeg instead of color patch examples?)
straight to a single bottle.

Thank You Again, for your time and excellent
products- Kurt Plummer

LINKS-
F-15E Dark
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-15-flight-swa.jpg

F-15E Semitone Bright
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-15e-981230-F-6082P-004.jpg

F-15E Sky Pastel Slate
http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/f15/images/f1504.htm

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/f15/images/f1501.htm

F-15E Rich Multitone Blue
http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/f15/images/f1530.htm

F-15E Dull Grey Pastel
http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/f15/images/f1538.htm

F-15E Pristine Purple-Grey
http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/f15/images/f1537.htm

F-15E Weathered Black-Patches
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-15e-19990603-f-7910d-004.jpg

F-15E Hi Saturated Dark Slate
http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/f15/images/f1539.htm

F-16C Weathered
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-16c-19990601-f-0073c-007.jpg

F-16C Bright Light
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-16cj-981228-F-6082P-997.jpg