Do you even Camo?

[Angel Barracks]

Sci-fi and camo and the old Mk One Eyeball…

I can never decide if to do camo on my sci-fi vehicles or not.
The RDF vehicles are an exception in that they do not want camo, being a sort of UN/Police force they will often intimidate the enemy by being bold and in your face, not hiding but advertising.
It also makes it easier for the locals to see that help is coming.

But for more techno forces, camo paint schemes?
ECM, thermal masking?

What would a future tank look like to the naked eye?
Black, shimmery, unsee-able?

 

https://cromsanvil.co.uk/

[Ruarigh]

I did a four-colour camo on my Brigade ONESS Germans, based on modern Norwegian camo, because I wanted them to represent a New Kalmar Union type force. Nothing too fancy; just stripes and blobs of colour but it looks ok to me. I’ve no idea what far-future camo will look like, and I doubt that we can realistically predict it either. It could be adaptive, or invisibility cloaks, or even remain pretty much the same as now but with additional, non-visible defences like ECM. Because of the technology in use, you might even find the vehicles painted in parade colours or schemes of the crew’s devising, because the techie defences hide all that when switched on. So, all that is the long-winded way of saying, paint them whatever colour you think will make the models look good on the table.

This is what I did with mine, but I’m no great predictor of the future:

There’s more photos here:

http://ooh-shiny-complex.blogspot.ie/2009/06/ja-vi-elsker-dette-landet-more-about.html

Never argue with an idiot. They'll only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

https://envirocitizen.eu
https://emidsvikings.ac.uk/

[Spurious]

Angel Barracks wrote:

Sci-fi and camo and the old Mk One Eyeball… I can never decide if to do camo on my sci-fi vehicles or not. The RDF vehicles are an exception in that they do not want camo, being a sort of UN/Police force they will often intimidate the enemy by being bold and in your face, not hiding but advertising. It also makes it easier for the locals to see that help is coming. But for more techno forces, camo paint schemes? ECM, thermal masking? What would a future tank look like to the naked eye? Black, shimmery, unsee-able?

Given that future warfare of anything past the next few decades is massively unpredictable and highly reliant on which technologies mature first:

Yes.

And No.

But given sci-fi wargaming has tech that often looks outdated compared to stuff already in use/on the table for the next 20 years, well, I tend to just follow the trends of the setting. Which has lead to some camo, mostly just whatever looks cool. Plus I really like green, grey and blue which kinda becomes camo when used together…

 

[Cosmotiger]

I generally do paint camo on my sci-fi vehicles or at least paint them in drab earth-tone colors. It’s not necessarily because I think vegetation or terrain on alien planets will look just like Earth, but just because that’s what we expect to see when we look at a military vehicle. There’s not a question in you mind about what this model is.

If it were some sort of heraldry or other bright colors, there’s some chance that the viewer could be confused, and pulled out of the illusion: Is it a civilian vehicle? What’s the deal with the red and yellow?

[Ruarigh]

Cosmotiger wrote:

If it were some sort of heraldry or other bright colors, there’s some chance that the viewer could be confused, and pulled out of the illusion: Is it a civilian vehicle? What’s the deal with the red and yellow?

I quite like the idea of tanks in heraldic colours on an Imperial Lord Knight’s world. I get that it could drag people out of the illusion, but that’s really going to depend on their expectations going in. Thinking about how society is always in flux and how it might change in the future, I could easily imagine corporate lords with personal armies battling it out for the sole right to the commercial opportunities in a given area. Tesco-branded MkIII Hovertank, anyone? Or would you prefer the MkI from the Basics range?

Spurious wrote:

Plus I really like green, grey and blue which kinda becomes camo when used together…

I’m a total sucker for Caunter scheme. It looks great on grav tanks!

Never argue with an idiot. They'll only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

https://envirocitizen.eu
https://emidsvikings.ac.uk/

[Noel]

It’s an interesting question.

I tend to say yes, even though technology keeps advancing.  Sure, you’ve got your advanced sensor technology, I have stealth coating.  You have guided missiles, I have guidance jamming.

Or I have advanced defences and you are using such primative equipment that my defences are useless against them.

 

[Mr. Average]

I sort of split the difference and do pattern-breakers. It looks camo-esque, but still lets me work with bright colors that make units easy to recognize on the tabletop.

[Fredd Bloggs]

Always wanted to do Berlin Brigade Camo, but never risked my sanity. The WW1 ship Dazzle is also planned, a great way to differentiate forces.

[Etranger]

Given that there are all sorts of potential developments in both detector and camouflage technology, some of which are probably already with us in prototype development, it’s a bit difficult to know what’s likely to happen. That said, I think there’s still the potential for passive camouflage – sensors go on the blink, tired troopers miss things on screens, mimetic schemes fail, but a well camouflaged figure/unit is still likely to have some advantage over one in bright parade dress. So I camouflage mine!

[irishserb]

Sci-fi is largely an artistic expression for me, as I tend to think that technology will change the appearance of weapons so much over the next 100, 200 years, that we won’t even be able to understand what we see, if we could see them.  So, on the tabletop for land battles, I shy away from hard sci-fi, and embrace a completely subjective collection of the completely believable and the absurdly silly, as it suits me.  Thus, camo is about visual appeal, identity, and conveying a mood or “feel”.

For humans, realistic (mostly mainstream) camos adapted from my favs from the 20th century; WWII French, German ambush, the splinter camo from Swedish Viggins, etc.  In different colors  from the historical or not, depending on the type and color of terrain and plant life.

For aliens, I will try different things.  A race that culturally disapproves of hiding from the enemy, might be inclined to have heraldry or loudly colored crests, or maybe display camo/coloring employing clan/tribal colors, etc.  I might imagine a well defined ecosystem of foliage to justify odd colors or patterns from a home world, etc.

Sci-fi is an opportunity to be creative, so yes, camo and color in the future.

[Author]

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