I've been lurking in these threads for the last couple of weeks and the idea of unique colors and/or sculpts for each race keeps cropping up. The documentary from SU & SD provided some insight as to why the game doesn't have these but some of what I saw did get me thinking about how to overcome the two largest obstacles: cost and identification. I've outlined a few scenarios below. Maybe somebody at FFG can figure out how to make one of them work.

1. Standardized sculpts in white/gray/black for easy painting.
This only addresses the desire for custom paint schemes. A package containing one full set of neutral-colored miniatures that can then be painted however the owner wishes. The miniatures will match the shape and size of those already found in the game so everyone will know what it is at a glance. I would expect these to come in packs roughly the size of the Descent Heroes and Monsters collections or the Runebound miniatures (and probably made from the same gray plastic). Players are then free to buy as many sets as they want to paint.

2. Unique flagship sculpts.
This package contains a unique sculpt for each races' flagship. Recognition is easy because it will be the only ship like it on the board. Once you know which player it belongs to, you'll know it's the flagship. This can go in one of two ways. Unpainted ships mean that a player can pick whichever miniature they want to use for their flagship that game without it being mistaken for someone else's because of paint scheme. Players could also paint them to match sets from the set detailed above (this means that a given race has a matching scheme but would be locked into a single sculpt).

3. Prepainted standardized sculpts.
This option combines the first two ideas. FFG chooses the paint scheme but all miniatures are the same, regardless of race (so a cruiser is a cruiser but the colors tell you who it belongs to). This option allows for the inclusion of a flagship with a race's set but, again, locks them into a predetermined sculpt.

4. Unique sculpts for each race.
This is where things get complicated and expensive. Each race is given a unique fleet (from lowly fighters up to war suns and flagships). These packs would include a visual quick reference card similar to the one that came with the Shattered Empire expansion so players can determine what sculpt is what ship. Depending on what price the market can handle (and wants), these can be either neutral-colored gray for painting or prepainted to FFG's color schemes (obviously, pre-painted would cost more to make and sell for more to compensate). As a personal preference, I think it would be neat for each race that has a "signature unit" to have really over-the-top sculpts: give the Saar some impressive space docks, the Arborec creepy ground forces, and some truly intimidating dreadnoughts for L1z1x. Also, just because FFG markets a given sculpt set as L1Z1x doesn't mean you can't decide it's the Ghosts of Creuss instead.

5. Full-color race-specific cardboard tokens.
This idea came from seeing the ship tokens from the first two editions of the game in the documentary. Instead of plastic, use cardboard tokens or imitate the pawns from Paizo's Starfinder (cardboard mounted in a plastic base). My guess is that this would drastically reduce costs (both production and selling) and gives us full-color ships that look unique. Either include a reference card or, if the tokens lay flat, print the ship class and race on the bottom (or leave off the race and let the players decide which who it belongs to). To get really wild, give each ship it's own name (but that would heavily imply a particular race just as much as using the race's symbol).

Another variant could be 17 unique Flagship sculpts (prepainted or unpainted),17 round bases with racial symbol print, and 17 clear or opaque plastic connectors. That way everyone can choose which flagship suits their own interpretation of their race and mount it on their chosen race base. The sculpts are easy to distinguish as Flagships and the base tells everyone which race it belongs to.

To further distinguish which player owns it, add 6 (possibly 8 if future expansions add more plastic colours) plastic rings that click into place around the bases. And/or make the connectors in the 6 colours.

I would be happy also with only 17 different flagships. And with "different" I mean the shape, not the color. Then if they want to launch on the market a full set of different models for each race, they are welcome.
Speaking about the prepainted-models... I don't like them: their cost will surely increase (compared to unpainted ones) but I'm not sure if I'll like the paint job they would do and so I might have to paint the models anyway.

Tangentially related...

for those who who might be interested in Star Wars themed ships, the game Rebellion and its new expansion has enough pieces, appropriately looking and scaled, to create a set of TI miniatures for both the rebellion and the empire. (Using interdictors as carriers is probably the biggest stretch).

5 hours ago, Fnoffen said:

Another variant could be 17 unique Flagship sculpts (prepainted or unpainted),17 round bases with racial symbol print, and 17 clear or opaque plastic connectors. That way everyone can choose which flagship suits their own interpretation of their race and mount it on their chosen race base. The sculpts are easy to distinguish as Flagships and the base tells everyone which race it belongs to.

To further distinguish which player owns it, add 6 (possibly 8 if future expansions add more plastic colours) plastic rings that click into place around the bases. And/or make the connectors in the 6 colours.

A perfectly valid idea and one I think I've read others putting forward as well (so there's certainly a market for it). I think the issue runs aground with cost. If I remember correctly from the documentary, each plastic stand cost as much to produce as the ship itself. You would get 17 ships but end up having to pay for 34. Some might feel the cost is worth it to have unique flagships "floating" above the rest of their fleet but is that "some" enough to justify a full production run? Sadly, we haven't yet reached the level of print-on-demand that the tabletop roleplaying game market has (but give it a few more years - I've seen any number of fantasy miniatures files for use with 3D printers).

Come to think of it one would only really need 6 (possibly more with expansions) connectors as only that number of Flagships would ever be on the board at any given time.

Or have the connector be part of the racial bases. The potential problem of this latter option would be breakage of said connector as it is a protruding part.

Also: if the sculpts connector hole is made the same size as the X-Wing miniature ones well... Hello modding spree!

Hmmm... Come to think of it, one could probably simply use X-wing minis as unique Flagship sculpts...

Its a board game not a mini game, I know it sounds great on the surface but to be frank, I can think of a thousand more productive ways to spend money on TI3 to atually make it a better game than then the mini's. Pretty much you name it and I rather have it then unique/racial mini's. Its like, the absolute last thing on the list.

Perhaps one day they will create a deluxe box set that isn't bound by normal price standards and then they can go nuts with the mini's.

I agree with BigKahuna. I love the idea of each race having completely unique unit sculpts, but I'd also like to play 4e, period. As the documentary reveals, putting so much design time and production cost into the plastic ships has diminished returns if the game's retail price skyrockets, and manufacturing is drawn out for another few years.

If FFG releases a post-launch deluxe edition, or a ship upgrade pack, I'll definitely take a look. I own Eclipse and the first expansion (Rise of the Ancients?), but I do not own the ship upgrade expansion, simply because it costs about the same as a whole other board game. As BK also said though, there are other things that are more practical than making the ships cooler in TI. Most of the upgrades don't even make sense for FFG to officially produce. As an example, I played someone's copy that had clear plastic platforms to hold extra ships on the hexes and it functioned much smoother for organizing the board.