Author Topic: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?  (Read 7719 times)

Luciora

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I usually get my inspirations from anime character outfits or from mecha shows, but the most odd one I did was from the Cabin Crew remix of "Waiting for a Star to Fall" and seeing if I could put the bikini outfit onto a mech.  (It didn't turn out too horrible.)

Psycho

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #1 on: 27 April 2017, 06:59:29 »
Mostly canon schemes for me, but that doesn't mean a few odd things can't crop up here and there. I've ended up doing a lot of reading on irezumi for 1st Ghost 'Mechs. And looking at tattoos. Sometimes full-body ones.... There are also hockey jerseys, a football team, and Transformers creeping in. Pulling in Swiss Guard colours for an Atlas III was an interesting one too. Not my initial plan, but once the idea settled in, I couldn't shake it.

Mendrugo

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #2 on: 27 April 2017, 08:35:04 »
The physical shape of the 'Mech often suggests the color scheme.  I've done the Grand Titan as Optimus Prime, a Huron Warrior as Londo Mollari, a Rakshasa as Mickey Mouse, an UrbanMech as R2D2 and a Wyvern as C3PO, and a Centurion in chrome and black as a Cylon.

I have also heard of people doing Fireballs as M&Ms mascots.
« Last Edit: 27 April 2017, 09:14:31 by Mendrugo »
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IAMCLANWOLF

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #3 on: 27 April 2017, 09:39:09 »
Rammstein: ʁaɪzə, ʁaɪzə! Cover art... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reise,_Reise

Eventually plan to someday use this scheme for my personal group, but... I have yet to
paint anymore in these colors, and I can never seem to decide on a Steiner special forces
group, or Wolf's Dragoons, or Wolf Empire... anyway, still one of my favs, and plan to do more.
 

JadeHellbringer

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #4 on: 27 April 2017, 09:59:00 »
I like experimenting with camouflage, so I take inspiration from looking at things like aerial/satellite views of Earth and other planetary bodies and trying to think how I'd mark a military unit serving in that area. It's not really so much about HIDING a three-story-tall Battlemech on an ice field on Jupiter's moon Io, it's about breaking up its outline so it's harder to get a clear shot at, after all. Another source of inspiration, dovetailing into the first, is how military units of the past 100 years disguise armored units in Earth's terrain- for example, the Swedish Air Force used a fascinating scheme on their AJ-37 Viggen fighters in the 1970s/80s that allowed them to blend remarkably well with their country's terrain. Same for the 1940s Luftwaffe in North Africa, who could make their planes all but disappear if looking down on them against the Sahara.

Parade schemes are nice, and I do find myself digging in the old Field Manuals and Camospecs for inspiration on those sometimes, but I much prefer an 'in the field' look usually. And if all else fails, three-tone grey urban camo never fails to make something just look mean as hell.  ^-^
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Baldur Mekorig

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #5 on: 27 April 2017, 11:10:28 »
Rammstein: ʁaɪzə, ʁaɪzə! Cover art... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reise,_Reise

I remember seeing that mini a few years ago IAMCLANWOLF, and recognized the inspiration almost inmediatly. I also like Rammstein. And also plan to try to recreate it in the future.

Also, IIRC, there was the mention of Filvet beign so poor that they left their mechs in the bright-orange factory paintjob.
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IAMCLANWOLF

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #6 on: 27 April 2017, 11:55:21 »
And also plan to try to recreate it in the future.

Sweet! Please share when you do... 8)

Baldur Mekorig

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #7 on: 27 April 2017, 12:01:10 »
Sweet! Please share when you do... 8)

Would love to know how you got that shade of orange.
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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #8 on: 27 April 2017, 14:18:31 »
The infinitely varied paint schemes of Star League ships means I have to draw inspiration from all over. Painting SLS Enterprise was fun, with red ventral surfaces, light gray flanks, and dark grey for all horizontal dorsal surfaces made it an homage to the real-world carriers of that name. I'm currently pondering painting up an Aegis like an 18th-century Lobsterback, and if I ever truly lose my mind, a Texas in a Nelson Checker.
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Force of Nature

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #9 on: 27 April 2017, 20:25:38 »
Me, I am all about camouflage, so I have multiple books and websites that are nothing but camo schemes and patterns. However, I have also had basic color schemes and for those of you that have seen my Marauder in the Mech of the Week thread, my inspiration for it was from a race in another sci-fi game, the Harlequins in WH 40k.

Mattlov

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #10 on: 27 April 2017, 21:28:54 »
The ghosts from Return of the King.  If I can't come up with a good scheme for something, I just use that.  It's also STUPID simple.

Prime white.

Wash green (whatever GW is calling their green wash that week)

Metal gun barrels, joints, feet.  Black wash those.

Metallic red cockpit glass.

Done!
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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #11 on: 30 April 2017, 20:37:54 »
I usually paint Canon schemes, as my much buying habits lately have been to complete the TO&E of specific units.  My personal scheme is a blue/ yellow in alternating quadrants reminiscent of a knight.  My brother has always been more creative.   He has a Pheonix Hawk painted like Reptile from Mortal Kombat,  and a Victor and Goliath as Megaman and Rush.

glitterboy2098

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #12 on: 30 April 2017, 21:10:50 »
so far for me it has been using the Ace Combat Ace squadron/pilot colors for my LAM's..

Ang Moh Siao

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #13 on: 30 April 2017, 21:24:22 »
Almost all of my other miniatures are some form of camouflage, but when I started making my own scratch-built miniatures, I decided I wanted to build an entire force that was all a standard colour scheme so that nobody could mistake which were mine and which were theirs.  I chose a simple blue/haze grey scheme partly because I always liked the colors on the HMS Belfast here. 



But I didn't go for the camo splotches this time, but instead tried to go for a low-vis sort of effect with dark lowers fading into lighter topsides.  Sorta.  Subject to the Rule of Cool, of course.


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Nomad

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #14 on: 04 May 2017, 07:48:27 »
I like canon schemes mostly. Vivid colors are another plus. Camo schemes can be fun as well, but they have to be interesting. I like some of the more unique German and Japanese aircraft camo schemes from WWII.

Natasha Kerensky

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #15 on: 16 May 2017, 15:29:27 »

Long ago, a friend put a big peace symbol on the rear of his Battlemaster and also painted his Elemental battle armor in nude shades with a green fig leaf "codpiece".

I like to match camouflage to images of alien worlds (real, artistic, or just in my head).  Or two-tone my mechs, like SLDF olive drab or pine green above the waist and SLDF tan or snow below the waist.  I also like the idea of reflective paint from the Awesome in the old Camospecs, but combined with some non-silver details (gunmetal, windshield, etc.).

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Nastyogre

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #16 on: 16 May 2017, 22:11:05 »
I had one today.  Driving along looking at the colors of houses. Tans, light gray and white. The colors of suburbia. Not sure how to do that.

glitterboy2098

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #17 on: 17 May 2017, 18:04:22 »
I had one today.  Driving along looking at the colors of houses. Tans, light gray and white. The colors of suburbia. Not sure how to do that.

make the tans more brownish and you could do this:

Luciora

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #18 on: 17 May 2017, 21:03:30 »
It makes a neat sand type camo. Base the tan, then balance with the white or gray and then trim with the last color.

I had one today.  Driving along looking at the colors of houses. Tans, light gray and white. The colors of suburbia. Not sure how to do that.

mbear

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #19 on: 13 July 2017, 07:53:36 »
I had one today.  Driving along looking at the colors of houses. Tans, light gray and white. The colors of suburbia. Not sure how to do that.

FWIW, my local hardware store has paint chips with complementary colors on them for color-challenged people (like me) to use when visualizing their house. For example the one I'm looking at now has a light brown, light green, and cream color on it. Maybe you could pick up some of those as inspiration?

And I'm finding the patterns used by the DUST game pretty cool. There's probably a real world example I'm not aware of, but the Black Sands pattern and Zverograd patterns are two of my current favorites.
« Last Edit: 13 July 2017, 07:57:03 by mbear »
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Fat Guy

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #20 on: 13 July 2017, 14:20:48 »
I've tried splinter schemes similar to this:



..but they never turn out good.
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SteelRaven

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #21 on: 13 July 2017, 14:36:29 »
A buddy painted this up for me, based on MW4:Mercs camo. Sorry the photo doesn't do it justice
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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #22 on: 13 July 2017, 16:00:52 »
Robotech/Macross and Crusher Joe for me.
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Mech42ace

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #23 on: 13 July 2017, 18:43:27 »
I paint mostly canon schemes myself, but if I do get inspiration from other Mecha series, I'll paint them like that. I saw someone post a Crossbow on Facebook a while ago painted up as an Ingram from Mobile Police Patlabor.  The resemblance was spot on. O0
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Wotan

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #24 on: 16 July 2017, 05:00:19 »
When i planned to paint a Clan Widowmaker mech, i've searched for a good spider "camo".
This came out.

Luciora

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #25 on: 20 July 2017, 00:42:55 »
That was me.  :)

I paint mostly canon schemes myself, but if I do get inspiration from other Mecha series, I'll paint them like that. I saw someone post a Crossbow on Facebook a while ago painted up as an Ingram from Mobile Police Patlabor.  The resemblance was spot on. O0

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #26 on: 23 July 2017, 12:34:10 »
When i planned to paint a Clan Widowmaker mech, i've searched for a good spider "camo".
This came out.

That's pretty badass.
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Major Headcase

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #27 on: 25 July 2017, 05:44:43 »
make the tans more brownish and you could do this:


  This was NOT a fun pattern to paint! Only 11 more mechs and tanks to go!!!
😁
« Last Edit: 25 August 2020, 18:33:58 by Major Headcase »

Starbuck

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #28 on: 28 July 2017, 13:36:34 »
make the tans more brownish and you could do this:


i did these a while ago. GHQ minis in Berlin Camouflage:

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IAMCLANWOLF

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Re: What's your most interesting inspiration for paint schemes?
« Reply #29 on: 28 July 2017, 15:47:36 »
Nice, Starbuck! Very nice... 8)

 

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