For anyone painting Omega Class Destroyers out there and wants some accuracy I
thought I would pass this along. At first I thought the letter painted on the
side of the Omega's nose(the grasshopper's head) was always the same as the
first letter in the ship's name but I have discovered this is not the
case.This is EXTREMELY confusing and I hope it is just not due to continuity
glitches
This is not exhaustive as I still have to examine my tapes more closely but
here is a short list
Agamemnon - A on starboard
Apollo - A on starboard
Roanoake -M ( the M's top corners are rounded)on port during collision
with Churchill but W on port when coming through gate.
Agrippa - S on port
Churchill - C on port and maybe on starboard (only part of letter shows
when it's launching fighters.
Nimrod - G on port (I miswrote my note,I think this was on port)
Unknown - R on starboard when it and Nimrod were chased out through the
gate at B5.
Alexander - J on starboard, A on port. An interesting thing is if you
look very closely at the closeup of Alexander's nose when it's closing in on
Agrippa you can see an A on the INSIDE surface of the port panel.
Heracles - H on port
Pollux - P on port - Both Heracles and Pollux are named as the ships
that opened fire on civilian transports but the onlyl letter visible to me was
a starboard A when the ships come through the gate. I have heard that they
used an image of Agamemnon but that may have been based on the A so possibly
either Heracles or Pollux have an A on the starboard.
Nemesis - I could not get a clear image but it sort of looked like N on
starboard.
Juno - doesn't show that area of the ship
Vesta - V on starboard
Furious - F
Nova class Schwarzkopf - J within a square with yellow and black lines
As you can see there seems to be no consistency. This could just be sloppiness
or some convoluted scheme. I don't think they represent group designations as
any groups shown have different letters. I even jokingly suggested they might
be "mint marks" for where they were constructed. If anyone has any solid info
on this I would love to hear from them. This may be off topic but I will be
using my ships for FT as well as EFSB so there is a connection.
> For anyone painting Omega Class Destroyers out there and wants some
> Unknown - R on starboard when it and Nimrod were chased out
Wasn't this the Olympic?
> Furious - F
This was the Furies, not Furious. Greek Mythology again.
> As you can see there seems to be no consistency. This could just be
I believe that JMS has said that they are batch marks. This matches with the
Agammemnon being 'one of the first... off the production lines' (Sheridan in
'And For a Word').
I suppose that it's quite possible that many but not all ships in the A batch
were given names starting with A and so on for the other batches.
Actually I had just found from looking at the Lurkers Guide that it was
Olympic, thanks for that and the Furies. It sure sounded like they said
Furious which would not have been out of place when you consider a number of
the ships are not Greek named but you are correct. The Guide actually had a
picture showing Furies and Pollux with the EA insignia backwards. I might
believe the letters represent batches but what about Alexander having a
different letter on each side and it seems like there would have to be a lot
of batches to give Vesta a V
David Best
> ----------
> For anyone painting Omega Class Destroyers out there and wants some
I don't know about the batch business, missed that post. I do remember a while
back (in season 2) when someone asked JMS about this, and the poster went on
to theorize that the letters indicated something do to
with what the main jurisdiction/sector the ships were to patrol (eg,
'C' for 'Colony Worlds', 'P' for 'Planetary (meaning Earth & local)', etc).
JMS' rather obtuse answer seemed to give credence to this, though I've never
been able to figure out where half the letters are supposed
to be sector-wise.
Mk
On Thu, 19 Mar 1998 08:24:41 -0700, "BEST, David" <dbest@shl.com>
wrote:
> This may be off topic but I will be using my ships for FT as
David, I don't think this is off topic. We've pretty much agreed that the EFSB
falls under this list's jurisdiction. That would make Omega painting
techniques as on topic as a post last year on painting GZG starships.
By the way, did you buy any Omegas from Crossed Swords? They got in 11 Omegas.
I picked up 6 and someone else picked up 4. I was wondering if it was you...
I am still wondering what the best base color to paint these ships would be.
I'm leaning towards a dark gray right now, but seem to recall them
looking dark red-brown in one episode. What's the consensus? Any
additional washes, etc. necessary?
For that matter, what are the current thoughts on colors for the Hyperion?
Again, I'm going with a lighter gray, but am not really satisfied with it. Any
ideas would be greatly appreciated.
By the way, I found that.055" piano wire ($0.45 at Ace Hardware) works great
as an axle for the rotating section for the Omega.
> I am still wondering what the best base color to paint these ships
The Babylon 5 Security Manual has some nice colour stills of both ships,
and shows them to be a pale-to-mid grey with some darker grey panelling;
the Hyperion has broad stripes of mid-blue round both "towers" and the
forward hull. BTW, there is also a rear-threequarter shot of the
Hyperion
which answers a post from a while back - the three engine nozzles are
NOT exactly in line, but the centre one is staggered downwards by much LESS
than the AoG mini has it - it should only be very slightly below the
others. Boy, is this getting picky.....:)
Hi Alan.
I am the guilty party. I now have 4 Omegas, 3 Hyperions,4 Vorchans and 1
Sharlin (plus some micro machines). I also picked up an Omega and 2 Sharlins
for a friend at work. These suckers are expensive and I won't be getting
anything more until the G'Quans come out. Now I'm just trying to work out a
satisfying gray for them.
David Best
> ----------
Closeups of Omegas show they are a light medium gray with darker streak
panelling. As you get farther away they become medium gray because of
that. If they looked red-brown to you it was probably a "lighting"
effect while it was on fire. I'm still working on making a satisfying medium
gray to give it that overall look. You could even try doing them light medium
gray and drybrushing some dark streaks (or do the reverse) or use a fine paint
spray instead of dry brushing.
Hyperions are lighter gray with medium blue stripes (not purple like in some
of the EFSB illustrations).
David Best
> ----------
There is also a very thin blue line topside running forward from the stripe on
the forward hull to (I believe as my picture doesn't show that part) the pulse
cannon. Also the underside of the bridge is blue and the name of the ship in
blue is on the upper tower just above the EAS symbol and registration number
in smaller blue numbers below the symbol.
I haven't seen the Security book so I can't comment on the Hyperion picture
but the rear views in Severed Dreams and Voice in the Wilderness II show the
central nozzle is maybe at the most 5% out of line with the others,in effect
it is so little out of line that it is inline.
David Best
> ----------
works
> great as an axle for the rotating section for the Omega.
> BEST, David wrote:
David, While it is very hard to make out in the program, the thin blue line
broadens just short of the tip and becomes pointed. Even harder to discern is
the lettering on the thin blue line: "This end towards Enemy".
Bye for now,