Re: Spaceship Paint Jobs

john_medway wrote:
>>>  I recommend checking actual photos of real ships as well as
spacecraft to
>>>  help get some ideas.  I plan to use some cool camo schemes on my
NSL and
>>>  Kra'Vak.  These are some ideas that I use, hope it helps.
>
>But, this seems weird to me. 
>
>First, unless the craft will be sitting on some rock, or on a planetary

>surface, why bother camo it? It's going to be targetted with radar,
laser 
>sensors, etc., not eyeballs. It's too damn far away! If anything paint 
>it black.

Maybe not for actual visual impairment, but perhaps a paint scheme
representative of the culture in a military fashion.  I know it's highly
unlikely that a ship painted with dazzle paint looks any different on a
radar scope that one painted gray.  But, hey it's a military ship.  If
the
ship is atmosphere capable, it might help.  I remember a cool idea from
Traveller that enabled ships to change colors and markings on the fly,
electronically.  That way, the ship could blend in any environment.

Using photos of actual ships and spacecraft might help give you an idea
on
weathering as well as amount of detail visible from a distance(not just
paint schemes).

>Second, how do you paint something in space? Spray guns will act like 
>thrusters pushing you away from the paint job, and I'd not recommend
>rollers or brushes, either. (Unless you want to believe the intro to 
>Red Dwarf.)

Well, how do you think they do it now.	Many parts for space stations
are
pre-fabricated on Earth and assembled in space.  Someday they might have
a
method to paint(I use the term loosely) a ship in space.  If you can
fathom
FTL, I think coloring a ship would be a simple practice.

Mike Miserendino