Re: Paint Schemes for Full Thrust

Win Baker commented that ink-jets and colour laser copiers don't work
when
creating your own decals. I have to disagree, having made a sheet of my
own for
my Star Fleet Battles miniatures (pretty much gave up the game in favour
of FT,
but still have the ships) -- Federation nacelle stripes and hull
markings, ISC ship
IDs and the like -- which turned out pretty well.

What I did was this: the markings were made using Paintbrush and printed
out
on a colour inkjet printer. Then I took them and a sheet of blank decal
which I
got from Hannants (a big mail order model firm here in the UK, for those
who
don't know of them) to my local Rank Xerox copying store and asked them
to
copy one onto the other. No problems, all quite quick and easy.

The end result was what I wanted: a sheet of markings on the decal film
which
could be cut out and applied to the models in the normal fashion. I had
no
trouble with any of the potential problems that Win mentions, and the
decals
took a coat of matt varnish without running or any other worries.

The one thing that you do need to be aware of is that the decal colours
are
translucent, not opaque, so don't expect your pale markings to be
visible on a
dark background. For the model-builder/gamer, this means that you need
to
place the decals on a light area of the ship, either as part of the
paint scheme or
specially added for the markings. Then they look great -- or mine did,
anyway.

As for colour schemes -- I use whatever references I have to get
"existing"
schemes right (ST/BSG/B5, etc.) and design my own for other fleets such
as
those from FT. Having said that, I make my own mind up about so-called
"official" schemes, such as those given by companies like GW and TFG.
How
much detail I add to each ship depends on the paint scheme, how finicky
it is to
do, and whether or not I think it's appropriate. Ships like the FT
designs, with
lots of surface detail, can lend themselves to a lot of fine work, and
look all the
better for it. I just wish there were a few flat areas on which to put
markings!

Phil, looking forward to the B5 Wars miniatures and using them with JT's
rules.
--------------------------------------------------------------
"We gotta get out into Space,	     | A sentiment echoed by:
 If it's the last thing we ever do!" |	   Phil Atcliffe  
   -- Return to the Forbidden Planet |	(p-atclif@uwe.ac.uk)