I'm a long time wargamer but Armada was the first fleet game that I ever played and I instantly fell in love with it after a demo game.

However, I didn't want to play the game with pre-painted ships as I felt that the ships, although nicely looking, were not really "my own". That being said, I took it upon myself to repaint all my ships using a custom scheme that has less to do with the Star Wars universe and more with how I thought I could make the Imperial ships seem more evil and menacing.

My first ship and also the subject of my test scheme was the Gladiator:

This was followed a few weeks later by two VSDs (only one is shown here):

Note - the antenna was mercilessly remove from both VSDs.

Some TIEs sprinkled around the ships. One core set + a fighter pack gave me enough fighters to experiment very different paint schemes on them. Just a few are pictured here:

Finally, I had the chance to place second in the Sullust tournament last week, and my opponent chose the MC80, so now I am the proud owner of a brand new ISD. The light grey areas were intentionally drybrushed to a slightly lighter grey than the other ships, so that the ISD stands out a little:

And my armada as it stands today. I'm looking forward to adding at least one Raider, maybe one more Gladiator, an extra Fighter pack and a Villain set as soon as wave two hits. Note: out of all of the games that I play(ed): 40K, WHFB, Warmahordes, this is the only fleet (army) that I have fully painted. The rest are in various stages of completion, but usually much below 50%.

Awesome, very nice fleet. That ISD is beautiful!

Now I just need to learn how to paint like this....

Apply basecoat of black, basecoat the light areas with grey, wash with Nuln Oil. The rest was just drybrushing (white for the light coloured regions and grey for the dark ones). The red regions are GW Mephiston Red washed with Carroburg Crimson. Comparatively, painting a ship takes much less time (or effort) than painting a unit of 5-10 guys for 40K or Warmachine. Most of the time spent was waiting for the paint to dry. The engine section really takes a long time because of that.

I especially love the ISD and VSDs, the red seems to stand out nicely, yet the paint scheme as a whole seems subtle. If that makes sense. I can't explain myself properly, it stands out, but not too much. Which is good. I like to think that the red might just be left over paint from the days of the Republic and the Empire hasn't gotten round to repainting them yet! The dark colours definitely look adequately evil though!

The VSD looks nice but the ISD is better! Are your SDs hand painted or spray painted?

This fleet infused with warpstone technology? Skaven Empire?

The VSD looks nice but the ISD is better! Are your SDs hand painted or spray painted?

I don't own an airbrush, everything was painted using a regular old brush. Regarding the Skaven comment, it is possible that this might be the explanation for my ships always wanting to fly out of the table. Last game I had to ram my ISD into my VSD with Screed to stop the ISD from eventually going out of the table. Left Screed on 1 HP, but he managed to limp away to safety.

For large scale stuff like that, I don't trust myself with paint brush. Great work nonetheless

To go a little against the title of the thread, I also painted my small rebel force. I have the CR90 and NebB from the core kit with the associated X-wings, as well as a second NebB that I bought basically just for the XI7 turbolasers. The rebel scum are however starting to grow on me.

I did a few more things this week, since I finally caved and also bought 1 of each rebel expansion I did not own.

First of all, I modified the Assault Frigate a little:

A few fighters sprinkled around:

And I also painted the movement tool, shamelessly stealing the idea from somewhere online (though I cannot find the link anymore).

And a group shot of some of my ships. It's a trap...

Gah, I know I wrote something here before about those corvettes but it's not here. In how many other spots have words been whisked away by the Bespin breeze?

Anyway. The CR-90 in particular sorta strikes me like a coral snake. It's a pretty vibrant tone between the red and white in those sections. It's neat, as is the Red-Neb Redemption too. Between you, D503, and Stasy (if memory serves that's all), I'm seriously mulling over picking up 2 extra frigates just for the conversion and colouring potential.

As for fighters, I do like those X-wings, in particular gold squadron. I'm a fan of yellow, what can I say. Besides, they might be a rebel 'fleet' but those are still honest Imperial ships. Nothing wrong with that. hmm, do we have any top down pictures of some of those new rebel fighters? I'm rather interested in the Y-wings pattern.

Hmm, interesting take on the Assault Frigate. There was a neat really clipped down one from Kruger's Kreation, but this is really different. I'm not keen on the bright green stripe, but that's just me. (I shouldn't say 'not keen', maybe apprehensive is a better word. I'm rarely convinced with green acting as an accent colour, but it works well as a primary. I am, however, a massive fan of those warpstone engines. Maybe that shouldn't be a surprise .

That said, as far as the construction goes... I like it. It's just so different. It still resembles something of the original mk.I with a touch of the MC30 in its pedigree, but it's also feels something like a heavy Braha'tok class ship. I know they aren't the favourite of many people, but I really rather like those things. I'm not sure what to say, it's really unique, I love the length, it actually feels a lot more in keeping with what I personally view as a Star Wars rebel style ship than the original Mk.II. My only suggestion is, based on the profile view of the side alone, is there supports in place with that mid-section join between it and the body of the fore? I'd hate for it to break or crack as it looks like it could be a candidate for a weak spot if it's not reinforced a bit on the top or bottom. Like I said, it's just that one picture has me nervous.

Great to see mate, and thanks for putting it up Oh, and before I forget, good work on the maneuvering tool too. Looks great.

Here are some of the rebel fighters in close-ups.

I should say that painting these guys just made me want to paint larger versions of them, so I'll have to start playing X-Wing as well . I just love the look of the B-Wing especially.

Regarding the AF breaking, the chances are very low. There is plenty of contact between the piece that added extra length (a Deathwind missile launcher from a Space Marine Drop Pod in case you were wondering) and the body. Also, it's reinforced by greenstuff. It's no more likely to break than any other piece from the assembled model.