BRaIn TeAsInG TiME

Okay.

Here is a question for the assembled multitude. Imaginary coupons for free food at Olive Garden will be handed out for the best answers.

Let’s say you want to paint a model that represents an aircraft that had a black stripe that was overpainted with a thin, miserable coat of olive drab.

WOULD YOU

Paint a bare metal finish, then add a black stripe, then gently spray a coat of faded olive drab over that, as gentle as a summer rain, so that the black line would show through just like on the actual aircraft?

OR WOULD YOU

Forget the natural metal anything. Paint the wing with a faded olive drab. Then paint on a stripe of “black + olive drab” to represent the appearance of the black stripe, showing through the thin coat of O.D. ?

Now what you’ve answer that, here’s a bonus question:

Why did you do it that way? If you chose to “replicate” the original, did you do it because

1. Attempts to “mimic” the real thing are hopeless. It won’t “look right” unless it’s an actual duplicate of the original.
2. I always choose to replicate. I don’t paint Luftwaffe planes white then drybrush RLM 71. That’s cheating.
3. I’ll know it’s “wrong.” It may “fool” observers, but I’ll know, and if I know “it’s wrong” then I won’t be able to sleep until I strip, sand, prime and repaint it in the exact manner of the original.
4. I don’t understand. If you paint a black + olive drab stripe, it won’t be a BLACK stripe like it should be. Am I missing something?

If you chose NOT to replicate the original, why did you do that?

1. I’m a lazy swine. I ate my siblings. That’s how I survive.
2. What difference does it make? Can I have your birth date for when I report you to Homeland Security?
3. I, monsieur, am a BRUSH PAINTER. I choose to take the path less traveled, and that makes all the difference!
4. Where are my Olive Garden coupons?

They’re just questions, Leon. In answer to your query, they’re written down for me. Now, tell me everything positive that you can remember about your mother.