The Little World

But it’s not the fault of the paint – or of you. It’s the result of history.

Cast your mind back to when you were a kid during the Boer war. When you could still get that crispy bacon. Remember what the photographs taken at the Battle of Bloemfontein looked like? The videos taken by the war correspondents? The bright colours seen in the television reports at the time? Remember?

Of course you remember. Don’t try to skin out of it by saying television hadn’t been invented. Remember the Soviets invented EVERYTHING before anyone else. They told us so in the 1950’s. How could you doubt Molotov?

Every firm impression you have of that African war, and all the subsequent ones up to 1950 is based upon monochrome images – still or moving. I know there was Kodachrome A film and Life magazine in the 40’s…but the flag went up on Suribachi in black and white.

So why not model in monochrome…or at least do it as your preferred mode of scale model photography. You will be able to draw closer to people’s memories if you do. And disguise questionable colour choices along the way.

Study old photos – newsreels as well as magazines. Note when full-spectrum film was used and when cruder emulsions were used. Take into account the earliest days when focusing and motion stopping was very crude. Note the different forms of mechanical reproduction in the publications of the time.

You can do all these on the simplest image-editing programs on your computer. Indeed, there are ready-made preset plug-ins that will do it in ten seconds. You can go all the way back to the start of photography – Become your own Roger Fenton on your own battlefield.

And best of all? The club anoraks cannot tell you your green and greys are the wrong shade.