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Dan is identifiable via his blog, but I'm not sure where I saw his name; possibly in a reply to a comment.  So not really anonymous.

 

He has his opinions.  We all do.  Dan disagrees with Nick's methods for disseminating information and knowledge; and may disagree with more...I don't know nor care.  In my view Dan started his blog because he wasn't able to fully publish his views on modeling forums.  He alludes to being banned from some in a couple of his posts.  

 

Personally I ignore his rants as they (or anyone else's for that matter) don't interest me; his techniques with brush painting do interest me though.

 

Tim

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I doubt that bilge has anything to do with Mr. Millman's having gone quiet.

 

Personally I have gotten a great deal out of the Aviation of Japan blog, and am most grateful to Mr. Millman for the information he provides on colors, and for some specific advice on a couple of modeling projects.

 

He is a gentleman and a scholar, and his present absence is keenly felt.

Edited by Old Man
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I'd never heard of Dan J Dunn until now but do not recognise the same Nick Millman he describes.

 

Nick has never hesitated to give me specific colour data but always qualifies that with what he observes to be the usual range of tolerances seen in practise. He knows the shade the paints were supposed to match to. As he has stated many times, how that appears when applied in different thicknesses on top of different undercoats (or lack thereof) can alter the final appearance a little.

 

Nick will never say "your Zero Sen should be precisely this colour..." because only someone who didn't realise how little they knew would make such a bold and over simplistic claim. Nick is never reluctant to share what he knows to put a modelling in the right ballpark with colour though, and that really is the most you can ask of anyone.

 

For the record, Nick has supplied me with specific colour values for both Mitsubishi and Nakajima's paint for Zekes (and many others besides). He never asked me for money and was always very enthusiastic about helping me. I'm quite willing to publically state that I do like Nicholas J Millman and I feel privileged to have enjoyed much valuable information from him.

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Yes Nick has spent quite a bit of time and effort advising me on all things Japanese, as I haven't got a clue and there are few reference books out there.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

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Words like nasty, mean, vicious & spiteful are some that spring to mind after reading those two blog entries. Dan/ brushpainter, whoever he is must go through a lot of axe heads & barrow axles if the rest of his blogs read like that. As The Old Man & Jaimie have said & I should like to echo, I have found Nick very forthcoming with help & advice. I value the contacts I've had with him & hope that all is well with him & that vile bilge has nothing to do with his absence from BM.

Steve.

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That blog post is one of the nastiest things I have ever read on the internet, and I've been on it for some time. It just gets worse and worse as it goes on. His comment at the end is just nauseating.

 

I do hope this isn't the reason Nick is absent. He is a very valuable member of our community and he is never less than helpful whenever called upon. If his writings can't be summarized into soundbites or Tamiya paint numbers that is because he deals with complicated stuff and he doesn't cut corners. He is an admirable individual in my book and I miss his posts and his blog.

 

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Didn't look closer but he seems to spend four fifths of the article only to reach out and put down Nick.

I can only shake my head, critic points are one thing but that's an ice-cold attempt at character assassination.

 

Nick, we are all aware what you do for the modelling community, you are very appreciated.

That guy is like the proverbial 5 thumbs down on a 1 mill Likes youtube vid ...

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Nick is A1 in my books, always answered my questions in full.

 

As for that blog reviewer, one thing is certain, he must of had one heck of a bad day to write in that tone. 

 

regards,

Jack

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"Brushpainter"  strikes me as the epitome of "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"

 

see

http://www.dogma72.com/?p=1749

"Paint Mixing 101: Primary Pigments"

 

Is the work of someone who remembers the basic from art at school,  and really has no understanding of  like,  what pigments are made of, and  how they are not 'pure' colours,   let alone dealing with the complexities of scientific colour,    for example the Munsell system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munsell_color_system

which Nick used often to describe the subtle differences between colours.  

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munsell_color_system#Hue

 

If  I had a "criticism" of Nick it would be he could be over sensitive to critical  or negative comments,   which is a real  drawback when you are posting up information that is based on careful scientific research,  and using colour science, so when someone says "it look this to me"  or the like, they may well get huffy,  rude, insulting or dismissive when their opinions are challenged.

 

If this is the cause of his absence then it's a tragedy,    I hope it's he just spent a few weeks collecting  paint samples from wrecks  on some remote Pacific islands and getting  well needed break as  well.  :)

 

 

For more on Brushpainter and his opinions, try this,  the emphasis is mine....

http://www.dogma72.com/?p=3765

 

Quote

There probably wasn’t a Luftwaffe camouflage scheme that combined the colors dark green, light blue and RLM 02 “gray.” 

Anyone who has been around actual combat aircraft (I was a USAF crew chief) can tell you that change is constant, and when new instructions are issued, old instructions, in the USAF anyway, are destroyed. No effort is made to keep an “archival” copy except, maybe, under lock and key somewhere (in Washington?). Maybe.

In wartime, in some air forces (maybe the Luftwaffe in World War II) the old instructions were burned. New instructions with later dates and the absence of an older instruction concerning, say, a color scheme DOES NOT mean that no earlier instructions were issued. It just means that the older instructions were superseded and DESTROYED to keep them from being accidentally followed. I can’t prove that this is what happened in the Luftwaffe in 1940-41, but a similar situation has caused confusion for modelers trying to follow and understand USAF and US Government technical specifications in the last half of the twentieth century. New instructions do not mention, and do not reference, old instructions. That part of history is lost (to an extent). It’s certainly lost to the extent that present day model builders get confused over the true color of olive drab or the correct pattern to be painted onto an F-4 in 1969.

My opinion is that the Luftwaffe paint command (or whatever they were called) issued instructions that told ground crews to use RLM 02 on sides of the aircraft in an irregular pattern. This is clear from color photos. But we don’t see RLM 02 as part of the so-called “splinter” pattern. If that pattern wasn’t 74/75/76 (as I suspect it was) then it was “probably” 70/71/65. In some rare cases, it may have been a gray painted over either the 70 “black green” or the 71 “dark green.” This gray color was probably meant to be the same color as the old light gray 63. a 71/63/65 scheme was used in Spain and the local commanders and ground crews would have remembered it. Any of these schemes make more sense than 71/02/65. That doesn’t make sense and it doesn’t show up in any images.

But the fact that no records exist does not mean that the orders weren’t cut, and sent out to the troops, who dutifully burned them when new orders were issued. Based on my experience, and, yes, some deduction, I believe this idea makes more sense than assuming that if no paperwork exists NOW then it didn’t happen then–and any “light” color in photos must be RLM 02 just because it’s the only way to make the photos match the existing orders.

 

PS "a 71/63/65 scheme was used in Spain "

was it?  first I've heard of it,   61/62/63,  yes,  70/71 yes,   

 

The blokes a pillock.   

 

 

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56 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

Goes by the user name of Dancho on ATF, does some really nice models but capable of holding some polarisng opinions as Troy has just high lighted.

Steve.

 

I stand corrected. I have heard of him. He was on here last year and that username instantly reminded me of his bizarre contributions to this thread:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235013981-buffalo-mkis-in-the-far-east/&tab=comments#comment-2581617

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After reading a few of his reviews of paints for brush painting, I would ignore most of what he says. He thinks that Lifecolor and Vallejo Model Colour are poor for brush painting and Xtracrylix is quite good (he even thinks Tamiya paints aren't bad for brush painting), whereas I find the opposite to be true.

 

thanks

Mike 

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Dancho has posted on this forum before.  Back in December 2016 he initiated a vitriolic rant early in a discussion on Buffalo colours:

 

 

I corresponded with him via private message and it turned out he was assuming that I was trying to sell a book and so being deliberately evasive in my answers.  In truth, I was simply articulating the many unknowns related to the particular subject.  Dan has a personal gripe with what he perceives as people "withholding" information so they can sell the same info in a book.  There is much of the same vitriol in his blog about Nick. 

 

Like others on this forum, I've always found Nick eager to share information.  What he definitely will NOT do is tell anyone how to paint or finish their model.  Maybe that's the primary gripe in the nasty blog post - Dan has to do some thinking or research for himself or (shock, horror) actually pay for research materials that individuals like Nick have compiled by personal study of primary source material?

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I can only echo what the others wrote above about Nick being very generous with his knowledge and recommendations about paints, colours, etc.. Dancho does seem to have problems.

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3 hours ago, JPuente54 said:

I can only echo what the others wrote above about Nick being very generous with his knowledge and recommendations about paints, colours, etc.. Dancho does seem to have problems.

Agreed, Nick is a first rate fellow and as for Dancho well, IMHO, the less said the better.

 

Cheers

Dave

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for me , that ' attack ' by Brush Painter on Nick Millman is outrageous , and so unfair

for the record , I once asked Nick what Colour the undersides of the 64th Sentai Ki.43 Oscars were in 1944 ( I was building the late war version by Fine Molds )

he very politely told me Cream , and when I cross-checked the information with j-aircraft.com , it was dead on the money ( it was totally correct )

I was waiting for a Model of mine to appear on his website shortly , so that's my axe ( I had my 1/48 scale N1K2-J on his website in 2009 )

 

Nick has always been polite , when I have e-mailed him .

 

 

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On 11/08/2017 at 3:45 AM, Troy Smith said:

If  I had a "criticism" of Nick it would be he could be over sensitive to critical  or negative comments,   which is a real  drawback when you are posting up information that is based on careful scientific research,  and using colour science, so when someone says "it look this to me"  or the like, they may well get huffy,  rude, insulting or dismissive when their opinions are challenged.

Agree!

I would add Impulsive, too.

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3 hours ago, dragonlanceHR said:

Well, yes, but as I get older I also find that I have less and less patience for people asking questions, getting the answers they don't like and then strutting that their ignorance is as valid as someone's knowledge. 

 

Vedran

There's also the problem that communication, especially via something remote like email or online forums (forae?) is not an exact science and whar you think you mean is not what the recipient thinks you mean and if the same happens in reverse a bad situation can develop from good intentions. Also people are not the same and no two people will react in exactly the same way.

 

Having said that I would still be seriously bent out of shape if I was on the receiving end of Dancho's words, especially if I put in the many hours of research that Nick Millman obviously has and which he shares with us.

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