 August 14, 2014 - 1:02pm | I fond an image of an Assault Scout in white and red/orange and it was noted as a UPF ship. The colors are based on the KH cover where a group of Outer Reach Assault Scouts are fighting a UPF Light Cruiser, but everyone seems to think that the white and red/orange Assault Scouts are UPF as it lacks any notes. Well, I used that image to make a sets of Assault Scouts sporting the Fleet Colors of the Frontier. The colors are based on the notes in the KH book and the counters. Most of the national seals (the little white circles on the hull) are left blank, as I don't know what they look like. Since I don't know what Corporate-owned ships look like, color-wise, I did not cover them.  UPF Spacefleet Colors  Clarion Royal Marines Colors  Hargut Militia Colors  Hentz Militia Colors  Inner Reach Militia Colors  Ken'zah-Kit Militia Colors  Minotaur Militia Colors  Outer Reach Militia Colors  Pale Militia Colors  Terledrom Militia Colors  Zik-kit Militia Colors  (Generic) Space Pirate Colors |
 August 15, 2014 - 12:29am | Cool idea. I had never thought about the KH cover art showing the assault scouts in fleet colors. I kinda imagined them as the UPF ships fighting someone else. Is there something written describing the art that I have forgotten or overlooked? -iggy |
 August 15, 2014 - 12:08pm | I agree, cool idea but...since most cannon artwork of Royal Marine assault scouts suggest the base color is white (admittedly its in black and white artwork in the various modules that Royal Marine craft appear in) thus I would suggest that the base color for a Royal Marine craft be white with a trim color being something else. However, since the full color art of the KH's map (back side of the hex map) and other covers depict a white and red color scheme consitently and since Space Fleet is the largest and most numerous user of assualt scouts we could say that the red on white color scheme is most probably for Space Fleet. You could also make the case that since the Royal Marines are heavily featured in KHs modules that red on white is their color scheme. Thus I could go either way on that but I think both the Royal Marines and the UPF should a base color of white with a contrasting trim. That's simply my opinion but I feel strongly about it. Actually truth to tell I think the Royal Marines really should be red on white. Finally what effect does reflective hulls have on paint color? EDIT: aLSO there should be high contrast between base and trim colors, for purposes of easy recognition. so no dark gray hulls but white as a base color for most of them. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 15, 2014 - 12:37pm | Cool idea. I had never thought about the KH cover art showing the assault scouts in fleet colors. I kinda imagined them as the UPF ships fighting someone else. Is there something written describing the art that I have forgotten or overlooked? None that I can think of. This is largely assumption on my part. The Knight Hawks cover was always a mystery to me. In the past, I assumed that the ship was a Battleship based on the engine cluster. And I could not figure out why Assault Scouts were (hopelessly) attacking a UPF Battleship. As a UPF rebellion did not make any sense — the KH book notes that UPF offices ever mutiny or rebel. On the other hand, Assault Scouts by forces outside the UPF. While working on the Clarion Royal Marines wiki page, I based the color scheme on the colors form the HK book and counters. On top of that, the Assault Scouts on the cover seem to look white with red, which almost looks like the colors of the Outer Reach Militia — white with orange. (Larry Elmore really loves vermilion decals.) Then it hits me: The Outer Reach Militia, bolstered by Malthar's Pirates (giving them a total of 4 Assault Scouts, as seen on the cover), attacked a UPF fleet in SFKH1: Dramune Run. The Knight Hawks cover might have been an alternative to Dramune Run, or was inspired by it. In that case, the large warship in the cover would be the Light Cruiser UPFS Courageous. This is the most logical thing I can come up with. |
August 15, 2014 - 1:36pm | I agree, cool idea but...since most cannon artwork of Royal Marine assault scouts suggest the base color is white (admittedly its in black and white artwork in the various modules that Royal Marine craft appear in) thus I would suggest that the base color for a Royal Marine craft be white with a trim color being something else. However, since the full color art of the KH's map (back side of the hex map) and other covers depict a white and red color scheme consitently and since Space Fleet is the largest and most numerous user of assualt scouts we could say that the red on white color scheme is most probably for Space Fleet. You could also make the case that since the Royal Marines are heavily featured in KHs modules that red on white is their color scheme. Thus I could go either way on that but I think both the Royal Marines and the UPF should a base color of white with a contrasting trim. That's simply my opinion but I feel strongly about it. Actually truth to tell I think the Royal Marines really should be red on white. Finally what effect does reflective hulls have on paint color? EDIT: aLSO there should be high contrast between base and trim colors, for purposes of easy recognition. so no dark gray hulls but white as a base color for most of them. The white area in black and white art needs not be white. The CRM ship seen the books maybe light green with black trim. In that case, the color schemes I made could be swapped. Red and white would not make sense for the CRM, they have an established color scheme, and that scheme would make it look too much like the ORM — orange and white. Reflective Hulls should have no impact on paint color, as a ship can still be reflective while having visible hues, otherwise most of the ships would look like a Naboo Royal Starship or a Trimaxion Drone Ship. The dark gray hulls could not be helped. The dark gray colors are superposed to be black, but that would hide all the details. |
August 15, 2014 - 4:06pm | I dunno malcadon, mint green for the royal marines? Space Fleet colors are pretty good and there is enough contrast. Royal Marines- as stated I dont like the color scheme Hargut- I would recommend reversing the white and green which would give you more contrast and lighten the look of it a bit. Hentz- looks just fine Inner Reach: this is a taste issue but the red on black or dark gray has a sinister kind of feel and would be better for outer reach which is a more sinister sort of place Outer Reach: has the famous look of all the color assault scout pictures in cannon and I would go back to my arguement of it being perhaps better for Space Fleet and the current spece fleet colors used for inner reach while outer reach gets the red on dark gray. Pale- i like the color scheme a lot but part of me wants a little higher contrast with this one and I'd like to see it with the light gray and white reversed. Terledrom and Zik-kit Militia is fielded by the same government- that of Terledrom as the AD and Zebs footnotes state thus they are really one militia and should have identical color schemes. Either one is good but the Zik-kit one could also be an alternate pirate color scheme. Pirates traditionally have tried to blend in when real warships were around or to sucker in civilian targets then they raised the "Jolly Roger" to this end a pirate operating regularly in say Dramune might use one the two militia color schemes to hide in plain sight. Alternately space pirates would go in for garrish color schemes much like the one you posted above. Lots of nose art too. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 18, 2014 - 12:51pm | But reflective hulls DO make everything like shinny right? I had been sot of thinking that RH would make many ships in SF look like the Naboo Royal Starship ----------------------------------------------- |
August 18, 2014 - 5:13pm | But reflective hulls DO make everything like shinny right? I had been sot of thinking that RH would make many ships in SF look like the Naboo Royal Starship I have no idea? Mirror shields make sense in a show like V the series, where the Human resistance used common household mirrors to deflect laser beams elsewhere. (And they did this without really tesing this fact) In truth, the heat form the beam would quickly warp the glass, so the beam would fire through, and shatter the mirror. To make spaceship reflective hulls work, they would need to be insulated to extreme heat, and even still the coating might not work like a mirror sense -- that is, it reflects the heat, but not the light rays, or the rays are defused or dispersed. That is, it could make ship look glossy, but not to the point of looking like a silvery mirror or disco-ball. |
August 18, 2014 - 9:17pm | There is no problem not being silver for a reflective hull. Silver is nice as it protects with a wide spectrum of laser frequencies. However lasers are built around one frequency based on the lazing medium to get maximum energy transfer. Thus hull paints over a silver surface would be choosen not to match any visible wavelength common to visible lasers in use. However I would expect weapons designers to choose many wavelengths above the visible spectrum becasue the higher frequency lasers are more efficient at energy transfer and thus cause more damage. A ship with a reflective hull likely returns to base with a scorched paint job, but the paint likely has little diminishing effect on the underlying reflective hull. Yes some energy from the laser burned away the paint, but the reflective hull still functioned. -iggy |
