(08-18-2019, 01:40 PM)Smurf Wrote: Is there a guide to House colours to help paint various ships?
That is very much one of my fave bucket list projects for Silent Death, actually. For my part I paint my House fleets to common themes stolen from historical sources, but with insignia and such appropriate to the House the ships belong to. I tempered the selections based upon the general character of each House as described in the assorted background texts as well, plus consideration being given to the environments in which the ships would be operating in. So for example, my Sigurd ships are all overall bright silver with tactical sections differentiated by the colors painted on the fins and stabilizers, and individual ship numbers and squadron badges in black. This is to reflect the pseudo-Viking warrior culture of the Sigurds, who actually want their enemies to know who they are (and therefore, how thoroughly dead the Sigurds are going to make them).
My Colosian forces are split in style between those based upon various WW2 German Luftwaffe schemes, and colorful looks reminiscent of WW1 Imperial German Air Service fighter aircraft ala Von Richtofen's Flying Circus. This shows the degree of differences of opinion between various Houses Minor command structures as to what is best for morale, etc. Some like Armagnac have an attitude that would be right at home in Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armee cavalry corps, seeing themselves as knights of the stars, and their steeds are Sharks and Night Hawks painted in heraldic designs like a medieval knight's warhorse barding.
The ASP Technocracy tends towards either shiny silver overall, or bright colors in blocks such as a red fuselage and yellow wings, or a mix of natural metal and bright colors. This reflects the ASPer disdain for their "inferior" unmodified Human rivals (aka, "skinbags"). The Warworlders in contrast are all unsentimental professionals, with their ships finished in suitable colors or even disruptive camouflage patterns appropriate for their area of deployment.
House Tokugawa has a schizophrenic approach, ranging from overall natural metal with color tail or fin flashing, and insignia of various regulation standards dating in some cases back to the Imperial Civil War, to a blotchy camouflage pattern painted over the natural metal finish when there's not enough paint to go around, or overall dark green or light grey when there is. The Tokugawan Customs Enforcement Agency is quite strict and consistent, their ships being overall medium green with the distinctive white and blue sunwheel badge of Tokugawan law enforcement agencies being displayed prominently on the upper surfaces of the ship for easy identification by honest citizens and lawbreakers alike.
So really, it is a case of whatever catches your fancy. The old 1st ed. Silent Death graphics found in the Black Guard and Overkill supplements are a great source of ideas, as they show off the seemingly infinite variety of designs, camouflage, and insignia found across Terran Space. There are also plenty of online resources to reference, and I've been accumulating a good many such graphics on my Pinterest board Warcolors:
https://www.pinterest.com/blackwidowpilot/warcolors/
"Pathetic earthlings. Hurling your bodies out into the void, without the slightest inkling of who or what is out here..."
- Ming the Merciless