Proteus454
Mongoose
Alliteration aside, this is something that always bugs me, though Starship Troopers seems a particular culprit. Allow me to explain myself...
In brief, the use of completely different paint schemes in the same army is quite ugly. It doesn't look right at ALL. The poor Arachnids, for instance, share what appears to be a dozen decorators amongst themselves.
It's not as bad as, say, the positively cartoonish 2nd Ed. 40K Tyranids with their rainbow-like racial palette. About the best thing they did for that line, or rather the presentation thereof, is give them something resembling uniformity.
Now, I realize this wasn't entirely Mongoose's fault, as they were a bit straitjacketed by the pre-existing depictions of the Bugs and MI in the movies and TV show. (Nobody, for instance, has yet provided me with a clear and compelling reason why the Hoppers are a beautiful tropical rainforest green compared to the cerulean Tankers or tiger-striped Warriors...)
You could also make the case that the Forth and Skinnies have differing tastes and the clashing colour schemes could be considered aesthetically pleasing in their necks of the galactic woods. But even then, there seems little rhyme or reason to the variety to be found in the Skinnies - even assuming, logically, that they weren't painted up to be a "studio army" a la GW. (Purple Venerables? Sky Blue Militia? Green Raiders? Red Guard? BRONZE Soldiers?)
Apart from the difficulty of tailoring squads to your specifications in terms of equipment and weapons as you could with conventional sets, the major drawback in the pre-painted paradigm as I see it is the quasi-legitimization of this practice.
I guess what I'm really trying to say is...wouldn't the LAMI look much better done up in the proper MI green, movie depictions be damned? I mean, no, what I'm REALLY trying to say is, doesn't it all look a little...
...silly? Not so much the gritty, fairly-hard sci-fi that Starship Troopers should be?
In brief, the use of completely different paint schemes in the same army is quite ugly. It doesn't look right at ALL. The poor Arachnids, for instance, share what appears to be a dozen decorators amongst themselves.
It's not as bad as, say, the positively cartoonish 2nd Ed. 40K Tyranids with their rainbow-like racial palette. About the best thing they did for that line, or rather the presentation thereof, is give them something resembling uniformity.
Now, I realize this wasn't entirely Mongoose's fault, as they were a bit straitjacketed by the pre-existing depictions of the Bugs and MI in the movies and TV show. (Nobody, for instance, has yet provided me with a clear and compelling reason why the Hoppers are a beautiful tropical rainforest green compared to the cerulean Tankers or tiger-striped Warriors...)
You could also make the case that the Forth and Skinnies have differing tastes and the clashing colour schemes could be considered aesthetically pleasing in their necks of the galactic woods. But even then, there seems little rhyme or reason to the variety to be found in the Skinnies - even assuming, logically, that they weren't painted up to be a "studio army" a la GW. (Purple Venerables? Sky Blue Militia? Green Raiders? Red Guard? BRONZE Soldiers?)
Apart from the difficulty of tailoring squads to your specifications in terms of equipment and weapons as you could with conventional sets, the major drawback in the pre-painted paradigm as I see it is the quasi-legitimization of this practice.
I guess what I'm really trying to say is...wouldn't the LAMI look much better done up in the proper MI green, movie depictions be damned? I mean, no, what I'm REALLY trying to say is, doesn't it all look a little...
...silly? Not so much the gritty, fairly-hard sci-fi that Starship Troopers should be?
. 
