The proper way to paint a model is a matter that must rest principally upon the judgment of the modeler, depending to some extent, also, on the use to which the model is to be put. The plain cast is sometimes used, drainage, lettering, etc., being put directly upon it. This has the advantage of preserving all the detail that comes from the mould, but it has also the disadvantage of a surface easily soiled and impossible to clean. If the model is to be photographed, the surface should be nearly white—in our practice we use a small amount of yellow with the white. This yellow is hardly appreciable by the eye, but its effect upon the photographic negative is quite marked. Yellow becomes grey in a photograph, and, in a photograph of a model colored as described, a grey tint is given to the whole surface. The high lights are not pure white, and there is no harsh contrast between light and shade. There is another point of great importance in photographing models: the surface should have a dead finish—that is, should have no gloss, or, at most, should have only what is known among painters as an egg-shell gloss. It is almost impossible satisfactorily to photograph a model that has a shiny surface. Any portion of a model that it is desired to separate from the rest should be painted a different color—the water, for example, should be painted a light blue; not a blue composed of indigo, however, or any of the grey blues, as these produce in the photograph a dead grey, and are not pleasant to the eye. The most satisfactory color that we have used is a mixture of cobalt—the purest of the blues—with Antwerp blue—which is quite green—and white. This gives a color that is pleasant to the eye, has the retreating quality to perfection, and photographs well.
Models intended for exhibition as such should be painted realistically. There is room here for an immense improvement in the usual practice, which is to paint the model either in some conventional scheme of light and shade, or else to put a single flat tint upon it. If the model is to be colored conventionally it is, in my opinion, much better to use a flat tint, light in tone, and with a dead surface. The use of a variety of colors upon the face of a model interferes materially with the relief, especially if the relief is finely modeled. For this reason models colored to indicate geologic formations should always be accompanied by duplicates representing topography only, colored realistically, if possible, and without lettering. Well-defined lines other than those pertaining to the model itself, such, for example, as those used to define the boundaries of geologic formations, should not be allowed upon a model when it is desired to bring out all the relief. The lettering on such models should be kept down as small as possible, or wholly dispensed with. The latter is much the better method.
The cheap reproduction of models is the most important problem connected with the art, and the one that is attracting most attention among those engaged in it; as, until models can be reproduced cheaply, they will never have any wide distribution and there will be far less incentive to the modeler. Various materials have been suggested and experimented on, but nine-tenths of the models that are made to-day are made of plaster of Paris. Although this material was the first to be used for this purpose, it has not yet been superseded. A plaster cast is heavy, expensive and easily injured; but plaster gives an accurate copy of the original, retains permanently the form given it, and is easily finished and repaired. The weight is an obstacle that can be easily overcome. By the incorporation in the plaster of fine tow, or of bagging or netting of various kinds, the cast can be made very light and at the same time strong, but the expense is increased rather than diminished by this method. Models made in this way, however, have the advantage that when broken the pieces do not fall out, they are, however, fully as liable to surface injury as the other kind. The large cast in the National Museum, before referred to, was made in this way. It weighed nearly 2,000 pounds when boxed—not an easy thing to handle—but it stood shipment to New Orleans and back without suffering any material injury. This would hardly have been possible had the cast been made from plaster alone.
Paper seems, at first sight, to be the material best adapted for the reproduction of models; but no one has succeeded well enough with it to bring it into use. Like nearly all those who have given this subject attention, I have experimented with paper, but the only positive result has been a loss of a large part of the confidence that I once had in the suitability of the material. Paper has been used extensively for large scale models of pueblos, ruins, etc., but I have never obtained a satisfactory result with subjects in low relief and fine detail. A paper cast may look well when first made, but it absorbs moisture from the atmosphere, and contracts and expands with the weather. The contraction is apt to flatten out the model and the expansion to make it buckle up.
Casts of models have been made in iron; but this, while suitable perhaps for models of mounds and subjects of like character, would hardly be applicable to small scale models with fine detail; such casts require too much surface finishing. The material known as Lincrusta-Walton seems to me to be the ideal material for this purpose. It is tougher than rubber, will take the finest detail, and its surface can be treated in any way desired. Unfortunately the manufacture of models in this material would require expensive machinery, and is outside the scope of a modeling room. Should it ever become commercially advantageous, however, casts of a model of ordinary size, in every way equal to the original, can be turned out in this material at a very small cost.
It remains to speak of the reproduction of models by process-engravings—a method that will probably receive much more attention in the future than it has in the past. It is perhaps along this line that the cheap reproduction of models will develop; but the subject is too large a one to be adequately treated here, and must be postponed until some future occasion.
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HACHURED AND CONTOURED MAPS. REPRESENTATION OF A HILL ACCORDING TO THE TWO SYSTEMS AND ON DIFFERENT SCALES. From Supplement to Enthoffer's Topographical Atlas by permission of Mr. Enthoffer. |
| FROM BUTLER'S COMPLETE GEOGRAPHY. |
| COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY E. H. BUTLER & CO. |
| Printed by permission. |