> Date: Tue, 27 Aug 1996 16:04:03 -0400 (EDT)
...
Now, I can understand why you'd not want everything a uniform unpainted metal
color, for looks, and assuming different fab technologies and metals
used, it's justifiable. Just imagine that the greenish-brown hue of one
culture's ships, or of some parts of your otherwise grey ship is from a
difference in metallurgy.
> I recommend checking actual photos of real ships as well as
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.
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.)
> On Tue, 27 Aug 1996, johnjmedway wrote:
> Second, how do you paint something in space? Spray guns will act like
Space dock, a la Star Trek of course.... Giant Starship wash and paint
center...:)
--Binhan
> Binhan Lin wrote:
Or,
You could always use electro-statics. Charge the ship one way
(we have plenty of leftover power from our tokamak fusion reactors, of course)
and the paint the other. Release the paint with no or little
pressure (non-conductive teather) and it will be drawn to the ship. No
problem.
> Now, I can understand why you'd not want everything a uniform
> it black.
In our shipyard we have this giant hydraulic vise that grips the starship and
dips it in this 40 billion liter tank of Acrylic paint....(after we tape off
the windows and unscrew the antennae of
course.) ;-)
Excerpts from FT: 28-Aug-96 Re: Spaceship Paint Jobs by @n-space.com
> In our shipyard we have this giant hydraulic vise that grips the
So is this how you measure displacement tonnage, as well?
^_-
> john_medway wrote:
> surface, why bother camo it? It's going to be targetted with radar,
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
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 Wikan wrote:
The Testors Model Master conglomerate grows from minis to macros!;)
> Mike Miserendino wrote:
Actually, for some reason, this generated a thought in my mind...
What about monstrous decals? I mean, if a society can build Starships, surely
they can build monstrous decals the size of football fields, and hold them in
place with Crazy Glue or Goop...
Alright, I'll stop now. (8-)
J.