The following is an excerpt from my upcoming book, “Student to Master, The Lifelong Pursuit of Model Railroading Excellence”.
Historically, model railroaders have had a love affair with deeply saturated, vivid, primary colors. However, that doesn’t square with the world we model, a world typified by earth tones, pastels, and desaturation. It’s also a world where, as you add distance and atmosphere, the color spectrum slides further to grays and browns.
We can improve the realism of our work significantly if we model this reality. Also, if we have a layout canvas that is, say, ninety percent earth tones and pastels, when we do add a touch of primary hues, they really snap. Note the red curbs and sign.