So I’m running a SF high magic space opera kind of game with some friends. Probably my final hurrah for using GURPS because we ran face-first into the system’s difficulties with futuristic weapons and have had to really hack around things. Still, my monty haul XP handouts are fun and they’ve reached the point of casting spells on/from their starship so things are really starting to get epic. Anyway, obviously I took it as an excuse to print and paint some warfleet models from OPR and Grand Fleet Admiral Tabletop. Colour schemes were from the original setting we’re playing. The rusty pirates used OPR Marauders with a base rust orange and a drybrushed dark metal. The brutalist ethnostate human imperialists used OPR Empire a black base, bright metal drybrushing, and a taped and carefully painted crimson stripe. The Melnibone-influenced high elves used OPR Progenitors plus airbrush bursts of colour as carefully as I could manage plus an attempt at “cathedral stained glass” for the engines. The handful of merchants and independents used the Grand Fleet Admiral Tabletop’s work. I barely restrained myself from spending far too much time on the GFAT’s models because I started using classic 70s SF ship palettes and reading up on guys like Ralph McQuarrie, Robert McCall, Chris Foss, and John Berkey. I needed models painted in a couple of hours so I hit it with what I could.
Swear to dickens, if I ever play an actual space battle game I’m spending weeks painting an armada up in classic 70s style. Modern minimalist styles have their futuristic place but I can’t get over how vibrant and cheerful and visually striking 70s SF art is.
