Overly Simple Paint Schemes

[darklord4]

Several questions...

When we see in shows, BSG comes to mind, where they are planning operations with little models, does that table setup have a particular name? e.g. tactical table or battle-plan-table-thingy-we-see-on-tv

I am scratch building ships and was going to paint them simply blue, red, green, so they would be like those pieces on the table, also since I am not doing any surface detail. Anyone else done this? Would anyone complain if fighters were out of scale and only one to a base? Models in ACTA are in scale to each other, but not in scale with the table really, so does it really matter? or is it an aesthetic thing?

 

[wkehrman]

I've heard or seen "sand tables" and "plotting tables" though there may be more, and it may be dependent on nation and/or branch of service.

Most of the fleets I've seen in person, all six of them, have been painted using canonical or pseudocanonical paint schemes. Several on this board have painted some different schemes, depending on whim. I suspect you could do the same. Be warned, monocrome generally leads to a really "flat" looking model. Multiple colors, even multiple shades of the same color, really adds a great deal of detail.

 

[Da Boss]

never heard anyone complain about the colours of a ship - even my day glow red and gold Centauri (laugh but not complain) there your ships paint em pink if you feel like it (or are a devotee of Slaanesh)

People are more liekely to have problems with indistinct counters / pieces of paper or stand in models not being obvious?

paint em and show us - you know it makes sense

 

[No. 1 Bear]

Just remember there is always paint stripper in case it all goes wrong.

 

[Poi]

A single colour is fine, so long as there is some shading.

Either drybrush or inking will do the job just fine. Lifts the detail.

 

[darklord4]

A single colour is fine, so long as there is some shading.

Either drybrush or inking will do the job just fine. Lifts the detail.

The trick is there are no surface details to pull out, unless you count wood grain as detail. The ships(which are done, but not painted) are made from basswood.

After digging on the interweb for screenshots from the BSG planning scenes, the models are different than I remember. The fighters have at least 2 colors, e.g. the vipers are grey with red stripes, but it is hard to see if the capitol ships have coloring detail besides the dark grey. For my first EA fleet, I'll be going with dark grey or the ships and light grey with ship markings for the fighters. The game I'm prepping for is Saturday, so hopefully I'll have pictures tonight :wink:

 

[Shadow Queen]

look on the painting forum .. may be help there

 

[EDFDarkAngel1]

My EA is pretty much flat metallic. I have shades and highlights still, plus running lights, etc.

Dark Angel

 

[wkehrman]

The key to this is shading and highlights. Even if you use an all red scheme, pick a dark ink or a dark paint and "magic wash" (1pt acrylic floor wax and 4 parts water), a medium basecoat and a lighter red (dark pink?) for the highlights.

I might consider a reddish brown for my wash...

 

[Delthos]

If they look good to you and you are satisfied with them, to hell with what other people think about them is what I say! There is no right or wrong way to paint them.

The military calls them Tactical Tables.

 

[Shadow Queen]

I started the Running lights thing

 

[EDFDarkAngel1]

I expect pictures!

Dark Angel

 

[Shadow Queen]

so do I