B-29 Painting Question

[Robert Porter]

I found this video of a build done, the builder used a rattle can of DupliColor chrome for the paint. Plus some airbrushing of a different grey on the tops of the wings. It looks great but I have heard the colors of the Enola Gay as she sits in the museum are not accurate. Opinions, thoughts?

 

[Capt. Vick]

Colors? She is natural metal. How can the "colors" be wrong? The markings?

 

[Wurger]

 

[mikewint]

Jim he's referring to the gray band on the upper wings. Robert already posted under "Pledge" thread. Any questions I'll be glad to help

 

[Robert Porter]

Yup, in period pictures you can see the color change on top of the wings. In black and white it is hard to make out. At the museum in a little stand next to her are some pictures of her at the factory being rolled out and she certainly was HIGHLY polished then. It oxidized over time to a duller color of course.

 

[Capt. Vick]

Ah... My bad...

 

[Graeme]

Opinions, thoughts?

Saw this earlier. Based on what he's saying - paint it the way it looks...now?

 

[Robert Porter]

Yes indeed, well written article. One of the things that often gives me pause when painting an aircraft in service. It truly is hard to know exactly what it was painted with sometimes.

 

[mikewint]

EXACTLY!!! In any actual combat situation the LAST thing of any concern was matching color. Whatever was available was used. In Russia the Germans threw "whitewash" on tanks and aircraft which wasn't even a paint and it eventually washed off.
Looking up color samples on the computer, or as I've occasionally seen on this forum people post color samples is a total waste as each and every color monitor has its own color balance settings which also "age" and a particular video card and printing out a color chart is another exercise in futility as you are depending now upon the color balance settings and inks of the printer which also vary and age with time.
So unless you have a set of official color Fed-Std-595 chips or its equivalent and a calibrated spectrophotometer to make comparisons between the colors I really don't care if you think it doesn't match.
THEN we get into the scale effect on color perception. Please no offence to anyone intended but that's IMHO more "mouse milk"

 

[Robert Porter]

I think you hit it on the head. If it looks good at arm length when done then it is probably fine. I have seen prize winning show builds with heavy panel line pre-shading that look nothing like an aircraft in real life. Yet the current fad seems to be what wins contests. Since I build for myself and to share with folks like those on this forum I certainly want to be authentic looking and historically correct if photos and documentation is available. But I don't care how good you are, you cannot tell me from a black and white photo that itself has faded you can deduce the exact shade of grey or blue or red or whatever was used. You may get close because of knowledge of your subject etc, but for every example you can show of adherence to a standard color scheme we can find 10 that show odd field alterations, individual customizations, battle damage hastily repaired etc.