How official are the official paint schemes?

Hi,

For instance, say I want to jazz up an EA fleet, and paint red stripes instead. Will the Mongoose police come to my house and take me away?

How's about I paint them pink? :p

In all seriousness, are there any resources that offer examples of alternate or period paint schemes, or do most of you just stick to the show canon?

FMB
 
Fireymonkeyboy said:
In all seriousness, are there any resources that offer examples of alternate or period paint schemes, or do most of you jsut stick to the show canon?
I use the same scheme, but change the colour. Keeps the fleet identity, but assists in identifying squadrons and variants.

Wulf
 
Well, it all depends on the race in question...

For the EA we have an "official" paint sceme, well, two actually. "Light grey with blue tim" (Hyperion) and "dark gray" (Omega etc.). And we have indication that the coloured trim does not have to be blue (B1 was grey & red, B4 grey & green, B5 grey & dark blue).

So I'd say the basic grey is fixed, the blue trim can be color-changed (probably depending on which sector fleet or battlegroup or whatever the ships belong to...)

Centauri... we know from the fluff that the "official" purple-gold-grey colors are the colors of the Royal Navy. Individual houses might have different color scemes (Besides my "Centauri Royal Navy" ships I have a small house fleet under construction which I intend to paint red and silver for example)

Narn... two color scemes were seen on the show, the common "red-black-white" and the seemingly oncommon "grey & blue". I always assumes the reddish was navy and the grey-blue ground forces (meaning only used for troop transports). Since the narn have no special fractions like the cenaturi houses, I would expect little variation...

Minbari... well in the show we saw they have blue ships... but even here there is variation. From "light blue with dark blue trim" over "light blue with purple trim" to "dark blue with greenish-blue trim"... so any blusih combination would be possible. The Minbari Protectorate might even have a completely different color sceme for their vessels... maybe green based...

Abbai... well, actually AoG CGI had them dark grey and deep blue, with light blue added on the Lakara only. Mongoose changed this into the blue & orange we see today. One could assume that blue is the Abbai base color, and depending on fleet other colors are used...

Brakiri... we know of the green and yellow... but that may be in use only by the Ak-Habil comglomerate! Other corporations might have other paint scemes... I would still keep to the greenish theme, but "dark green and red" is as applicable as "yellow-green and sky blue"

Drazi... well, all the ships we ever saw were kinda gunmetal-grey with red markings. But since we didn't get that good a look at them one can expect different coloured markings and individual decorations (it would be "drazi" for a captain to paint his ship anything the other captains can't stop him to do... but most will make sure their paint sceme doesn't give cause for too many brawls) Hell, at certain times ships might repait all their marking to either green or purple...

Vree... grey with colors - blue and yellow were seen in the show, but every color should be possible. Just don't paint them like big yellow smiley faces...

Raiders & Civilians... they can paint their ships whatever they want. Civilians will have company colors and logos, while raiders might short garish paint scemes matching the bands name (so the "Bloodstar Pirates" might have dark grey ships with painted on bloow drops and their "skull in a red star" insignia while the "Hells Raiders" might have coal-black hulls with flames around gunports and engines, and the sneaky "Rock Hounds" might have a brown camo pattern to better hide in asteroids... you get the idea)

Vorlons... well, in the show we have yellow with greenish-brown markings and orange with reddish-brown markings. Back in B5W we also had some more skin colors mentioned... Azure and Amethyst...

Drakh... no variation known.

Shadows... no variation at all.
 
but am sure if you want to paint your EA flourescent pink then thats upto you. yes there are canon colours but nothing wrong with being original.
 
ShadowScout said:
Vorlons... well, in the show we have yellow with greenish-brown markings and orange with reddish-brown markings. Back in B5W we also had some more skin colors mentioned... Azure and Amethyst...

Shadows... no variation at all.
Which, if you think about it, is a bit odd really...

Wulf
 
At the end of the day, they are your miniatures and can be painted however you like. I have painted all my late-era EA ships in the same grey that I used for the Omegas and Novas. Some people like them nearly black but I prefer to keep my fleet looking consistent.

Besides, I wanted to save the black for my Shadow Omega to make it stand out a bit more. 8)

If you want to paint your fleet a particularly unusual colour then you can always invent a bit of fluff to explain it (eg your admiral is an eccentric character, testing new themal coatings etc). I have always painted my minis the way I would like them to look rather than the way someone else tells me to paint them.
 
Couldn't agree more. Paint them however you like.

Although I personally would draw the line at somethings a lot uncharacteristic for the fleet (like psychodellic is EA for example or bright pink Shadows or...) but thats just me. Do what you like.

Nick
 
plus if everyone painted them exactly the same could get confusing in a tourney game if you face the same race, i faced 2 other centauris with mine in the last tourney, dont want same looking ships then.
 
Wulf Corbett said:
ShadowScout said:
Vorlons... well, in the show we have yellow with greenish-brown markings and orange with reddish-brown markings. Back in B5W we also had some more skin colors mentioned... Azure and Amethyst...

Shadows... no variation at all.
Which, if you think about it, is a bit odd really...

Wulf

Well we probably only see the pedigree ones :lol:

LBH
 
i personally don't like a lot of cannon paint scheams. i only have a few minis but they are all painted non-cannon.

my Sharlin and most of my White Stars are black and silver with the side fins on the Sharlin being gold. my Dag-Kar is porple with blue splochy stripes. my Vivtories are mostly dark grey, but i changed the pattern and color of the trim (using a darker grey on some parts and Games' Workshop's Tin Bitz for the red markings on the bow.

I think as i get more narn ships the'll be more cannon-ih-ly painted, but i'm going to stick with the black and silver for the Minbari.
 
ShadowScout said:
Raiders & Civilians... they can paint their ships whatever they want. Civilians will have company colors and logos,

Like this picture from the old AOG homepage shows:

freightr.gif


:wink:
 
i'm considering a darkstar fleet instead of a whitestar one, maybe dark grey like the victory, depends on how i feel when it comes to painting them
 
What's wrong with a bright pink Shadow fleet? If I were the Minbari and saw bright pink Shadow Vessels after fighting the black ones for so long I'd probably think I'm going insane. Or maybe toss a bright pink one among the black ones. Then everyone shoots at it thinking it's something special when in fact it's just a normal ship with a new color. Then your real force hits. :lol:
 
I think if everyone stuck to what is perceived as cannon, then things would be a bit dull, instead variations help make more of an impact at tourneys, Reavermans Zebra stripped Ka'Toc's are very distinctive, and all my brakiri are in battleship grey, which makes them quite unique, the Blue Narn are very cool, not sure if they are reavermans or burgers, but look excelent, while their are some interesting centauri variations as well. Do what "feels" right to you, it's your fleet, why not do what you want with them?
 
interestingly thats another of those famous misquotes like 'beam me up scotty' etc.

Henry Ford never actually said that one. There should be a law against pink shadows though ;). I mean theyre SHADOWS. Blackness is really their defining characteristic ;)
 
Karhedron said:
At the end of the day, they are your miniatures and can be painted however you like. I have painted all my late-era EA ships in the same grey that I used for the Omegas and Novas. Some people like them nearly black but I prefer to keep my fleet looking consistent.

Besides, I wanted to save the black for my Shadow Omega to make it stand out a bit more. 8)
Well, at leat the Nemesis should have the same paint job as the Shadow Omega, since it´s using the same Shadow Tech (and, given that it can self-repair, it has the same bio-organic hull)
 
Locutus9956 said:
interestingly thats another of those famous misquotes like 'beam me up scotty' etc.

Henry Ford never actually said that one. There should be a law against pink shadows though ;). I mean theyre SHADOWS. Blackness is really their defining characteristic ;)
Rosalyn(Okage: Shadow King) had a pink shadow. It was her shadow's defining characteristic. Thus proving that pink works perfectly fine as a shadow. Thus Shadow vessels can indeed be pink. Preferably bright pink.
 
Wulf Corbett said:
ShadowScout said:
Shadows... no variation at all.
Which, if you think about it, is a bit odd really...
Yup. The one most chaotic race has no variation at all.

Of course, it could be that they do have a lot of variations - just not in a part of the spectrum visible by human eyes...

In any case, I like their basic paint style (glossy black spots on flat dark grey coat). And I admit that I have thought (but rejected) about alternate ideas... (glossy black spots on flat blue or purple coat)...

Still, pink ShadowShips should be illegal.
 
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