Newbie painting question

[Ironwolf44]

I have always been of the attitude that if I paid money for the model, I get to paint it however I damn well please.

However, all the fleets in B5 have specific existing colors. How much leeway is there to be myself before some one says 'What the &$% were you thinking? Get that off the table!'

My current idea: I am going to build a League fleet. It will be a 'standing' fleet, not just a bunch of ships from members tossed together to meet a threat. As such, it will have a common base color for every ship, no matter where it came from. Ships would retain something of their own though. For example, Vree ships would keep the blue 'lights', Brakiri would keep the yellow bands, and so on.

So, am I too far out in left field? Will I need to conform? Or may I indulge myself?

I know it is just me, but the Vree Xill just screams to me to be painted yellow and have a happy face on it. I won't, but it is damn tempting.

 

[CZuschlag]

My Dilgar fleet is not the depicted standard mottled green. It's solid blue/ice blue/purple with the orange signature crescent, as a gesture to the normal color scheme. I've received positive feedback on the fleet for quite some time, and my painting skills are nil; I'd wager you receive no negative feedback.

This is exactly the same sort of acknowledgement that you Brakiri banding and Vree bluelight, while changing color. I see no issues, particularly with League. The Narn camo thing is pretty prevalent; even in some of the colors in the Narn camo change. And, also granted, I've never seen any Minbari fleet painted anything but light blue or primer grey.

And heck, you might want to name some of your Vree in keeping with the happy face Xill. Perhaps christen it the "Roswell". Two Xorrs could be the "Sculley" and the "Mulder".

One local player has a dappled grey-white and dark pattern. The explanation was they wanted a paint scheme that matched all the cows they'd abducted. Moo, indeed. That ship immediately became the command Xaak, not some regular Xill. It's a favorite in the shop.

Creative things like that should get you LOTS of artistic leeway.

 

[prelude_to_war]

I say go for it - paint to your hearts content. Just make sure to post those pics here for all to see!!

Yeah, that Vree Cow-snatcher is a sight.

 

[cthol24601]

I saw a fleet of Vree done up to look the ships from Invader Zim. Also withe the pink, green and purple coulor scheme and ships christened Zim, Gir and of course "My Tallest". :lol:

 

[Chernobyl]

look for the pictures of SQ's whitestars
look for Prelude's Pak'Ma'Ra
and somewhere on here you'll see some centauri in tha colors of B.A. Baraccus...

paint however you feel. Your theme is as valid as anyone.

Chern

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

anyone who refuses to play with you because your ships are in non-canon colours doesn't deserve to get a game.

 

[phoenixhawk]

It's kinda odd for me. This is the first game where I've ever even tried to do "canon" color schemes. My Battlefleet Gothic Eldar were blue w/ orange and purple w/ orange (two different fleets) and my Warmachine Cygnar are royal purple and Khador are snow-white/blues/grays winter camo. I've always been of the same opinion as you, that I bought it, I can paint it how I want it.

Not to say that everything I paint for B5 looks like Mongoose, but I think they look pretty good for my limited painting ability.

I like your idea for the League ships. It should look pretty cool when it's done. You'll have to show us how it turned out.

Chris

 

[Ironwolf44]

Thanks for the support guys (and gals, if there are any).

I'm going to wait until after August to try to build a major fleet of any kind. Meanwhile, just to have a few ships in case I get a chance to get a game,,,,,, I've decided to pick up a Vree Xill, a Brakiri Ikorta, and a pair of Abbai Tiraca. That should give me enough for few small games.

I don't have a digital camera, but I'll see what I can do to post pics of the paint jobs.

P.S. I'm a firm believer in the '36 inch rule'. I.E., if it looks good from 3 feet away it's plenty good for gaming. I'm a fair painter, but not real good.

 

[Banichi]

I'm a firm believer in the '36 inch rule'. I.E., if it looks good from 3 feet away it's plenty good for gaming. I'm a fair painter, but not real good.

This is quite sensible. I think it is great when people do 1st grade paint jobs, it inspires a lot of people with their own painting.(myself inclued) But I've come to the conclusion that an active wargaming model has a harder life than a display case work of art. I've played wargames for a while, and have always found it somewhat dismaying when a model gets chipped, or the right wing falls off your griffon for the 7th time while on the way to a game. (before I discovered wiring). I like to think my fleets are respectable looking, but the schemes I've used are ones that are easy to patch up. Espesially since metal models seem to chip easier than plastics.

 

[Ironwolf44]

I like having a nicely painted army, but not so nice I'm afraid to play with it.
I remember one game where the guy nearly has a spasm because one of his "primo" paint job pieces accidently got knocked over.

After the battle, it took him 15-20 minutes to carefully pack his army back into its special carry case. This was nicely contrasted by his opponent who just scooped his army up in double handfulls and dumped them in a box lid.

 

[Da Boss]

My feeling is paint how you like - you can see my attempts somewhere on here - Red and Gold Centauri - tasteful they ain't but I like 'em.

But then I have both blood red and bright pink Chaos ships for BFG - Obviously Khorne and Slaanesh respectively.

 

[Shadow Queen]

anyone who refuses to play with you because your ships are in non-canon colours doesn't deserve to get a game.

you mean deserve to get there heads smacked like in NCIS

 

[Shadow Queen]

look for the pictures of SQ's whitestars
look for Prelude's Pak'Ma'Ra
and somewhere on here you'll see some centauri in tha colors of B.A. Baraccus...

paint however you feel. Your theme is as valid as anyone.

Chern

My mom said "Paint your Shadows pink."

Never get painting advice from your mom[/quote]

 

[CZuschlag]

The Mary Kay Shadow fleet.

I think that's scary enough a thought, thank you.

 

[Shadow Queen]

yeah I know .... gotta photo my purple blue stars :lol:

 

[Darzoni]

My brother is the one with the Centauri fleet that has the A-Team colors.

My Vorlons are blue and my Khador is khaki. My sharlin, when I paint it, will be bone-colored.

My EA are mostly greys and silverish metallics because it is extremely difficult to imagine them any other way.

So no, I imagine non-standard schemes aren't going to get you into any trouble.