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Why aren't there more space ships in a natural metal finish?


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Here in Earth, paint is used to protect a surface from being corroded by the elements. These corrosives do not exist in space. A layer of paint will not protect metal from radiation. So why paint a space ship?

Only Queen Armadalla's space ship was unpainted - and as it could fly in the atmosphere and land on the ground, it should have had a layer of paint.

Perhaps a layer of black paint will help a space ship absorb radiation for the production of heat?, to keep the lifeforms inside, warm?

Is my logic wrong? Can you imagine a Klingon Battle Cruiser in natural metal? I ask, 'cos I building one and am trying to decide on a colour.I'd appreciate your point of view. TIA. George, out...........................

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If you're talking about sci-fi, there could be a lot of reasons. Visual interest, camouflage, to make the spacecraft seem dirty or weathered, natural metal finishes are difficult to pull off, or because most flying saucers are depicted as metallic.

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In all my life, I've only ever seen ONE spaceship that was camouflaged for combat in a deep space environment - an X-Wing fighter in flat black, and speckled with white dots (see MM/Sci-Fi/X-Wing fighter). The trouble is, I built it, and it got canned in a competition for 'not being accurate to the reference (the movie, NOT my logical blurb). No sour grapes here, though.

Perhaps I'm TOO much of a radical thinker and modeller!! Or just weird!!

George, out.............................

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A Klingon Bird of Prey with white dots would look realistic as it would look like the Cloaking Device was activated. Imagine arranging the dots in the same pattern as the night sky with constellations. You could have the Big Dipper on one wing and Orion on the other. (Or whatever the corresponding constellation to the Big Dipper is.) It would be easy to do. Just paint the model black and then photocopy a starmap. Punch holes in the map where the stars are and use it as a template and spray. Then, make a partial shadow box with a floor and 2 walls, paint it black and use the same starmap template to spray the stars. And it's the same effect that the real cloaking device uses. It'd be cool. I keep telling myself I'm going to try it someday.

As far as the metalllic finishes go. I always thought the Star Trek ships, both Federation and Klingon, were mostly unpainted. I thought the different colors represented the exotic materials that the spaceship was built from or chemicals the surface was treated with. I mean, the Aztec pattern on the Enterprise is so complex, I can't think of any rationale for painting it that way so I figured it was just the unpainted, natural surface.

I wouldn't expect an advanced spaceship like you see in sci-fi movies to be made from sheet aluminum like an airplane or even the Apollo capsules & landers. I would imagine anything designed for deep space travel would be made from something else, therefore, I'd expect the colors to be different than silver.

Or perhaps they are painted for other reasons: camo or squadron markings, personal preference, etc....

Just my thought.... But I feel your pain. I bet the X-Wing looked cool. Any chance of seeing it?

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A layer of paint will not protect metal from radiation. So why paint a space ship?

Ah, but it DOES protect against radiation...infrared radiation. That's why the large majority of contemporary space craft are painted white. Sci-fi ships tend to be white because that's what movie makers think their audiences expect since that's what said audience sees in the newspaper and on TV. It is, after all, a valid concept...

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In the "old days" of sci fi when models were filmed in front of either a blue or green screen, a natural metal finish would reflect the color of the screen and when the color was removed and the model matted against a starfield any reflection in the model would also disappear. That's why in the original Star Wars movie blue squadron in the book was changed to red squadron in the movie because blue stripes on the wings and fuselage would disappear. With CGI now the main way special effects are done there are no limits on what color ships can be.

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Airliner fuselages are painted for anti-radiation purposes, as were cold war bombers to fend off atomic flash heating.

All ST ships are supposedly natural metal, it's just that the metals are different colors, depending on the systems where they are produced. Paint would be considered an anachronism at this tech level. Duranium/Trititanium must be very light green, the color of most Fed starships.

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A Klingon Bird of Prey with white dots would look realistic as it would look like the Cloaking Device was activated. Imagine arranging the dots in the same pattern as the night sky with constellations. You could have the Big Dipper on one wing and Orion on the other. (Or whatever the corresponding constellation to the Big Dipper is.) It would be easy to do. Just paint the model black and then photocopy a starmap. Punch holes in the map where the stars are and use it as a template and spray. Then, make a partial shadow box with a floor and 2 walls, paint it black and use the same starmap template to spray the stars. And it's the same effect that the real cloaking device uses. It'd be cool. I keep telling myself I'm going to try it someday.

As far as the metalllic finishes go. I always thought the Star Trek ships, both Federation and Klingon, were mostly unpainted. I thought the different colors represented the exotic materials that the spaceship was built from or chemicals the surface was treated with. I mean, the Aztec pattern on the Enterprise is so complex, I can't think of any rationale for painting it that way so I figured it was just the unpainted, natural surface.

I wouldn't expect an advanced spaceship like you see in sci-fi movies to be made from sheet aluminum like an airplane or even the Apollo capsules & landers. I would imagine anything designed for deep space travel would be made from something else, therefore, I'd expect the colors to be different than silver.

Or perhaps they are painted for other reasons: camo or squadron markings, personal preference, etc....

Just my thought.... But I feel your pain. I bet the X-Wing looked cool. Any chance of seeing it?

Yeah, it would make more sense for advanced spacecraft to be made of advanced composites instead of common metals.

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The really old sci-fi movies and serials often had metallic spacecraft, like in "Flash Gordon" or "Buck Rogers" or "Zombies of the Stratosphere". "This Island Earth" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" also had metal saucer ships in them. One reason that ships later on didn't would likely have been an attempt to make their ships not look like the older shows. It also would allow more specific detail to be seen better, and an all metallic vehicle model is a pig to both light and shoot without reflections causing innumerable headaches. Real life considerations of thermodynamic properties often takes back seat to visual looks.

Alvis 3.1

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