I typed a reply to this last night and it seems to have evaporated.
Oh well.
Sandy, there's a thing called
aerial perspective. This isn't how you view your TX
, but how light is affected by distance.
Far away objects have reduced contrast, reduced levels of chroma, and a blue shift. Think of
mountain landscapes - the further ones look washed out and tend towards the colour of the sky. This is due to the presence of air and haze particles between the object and the observer.
A scale model on the water tricks the eye into thinking (as long as you're not like
Father Dougal) it's actually a big ship far away.
Of course, we don't have "enough" air and haze in these short distances, so it would be appropriate in certain circumstances to paint a model with less zingy paints than the original vessel,
if that model is to appear realistic at a scale distance of, say, a few kilometres. But this model would then look a little washed-out when seen close to.
It naturally boils down to personal preference. Large scales (my 1/8th Racundra) I'll try to paint as per the original (whatever colour that was - I only have black and white photos and a few notes!). Small scales (my 1/72nd Dreadnought) I'll be painting in slightly more muted tones than the original (dark greys instead of blacks), since I'll tend to want to see it at greater distances, patrolling local lochs against the Hun.
Andy