Imperiallines Type TI Frontier Transport Paint Scheme

[mirc]

Hi everybody

I am just starting texturing my Frontier Transport model. According to any published material that I am aware of the only graphic elemend seems to be the Imperiallines Logo. My current takes on that logo are probably not correct but might fuel a discussion. I am especially interested in its colors.

The ship itself must have loads of safety markings and signs scattered over its hull, so there is lots of potential to get a decent and less dull looking texture even without stripes and shark-tooth decals. But what's the general chore to this topic.
Does anyone have "canon" information regarding Imeriallines colors and paiunt shemes or if Rob Caswell for example might have had some colors in mind (I should ask him over at DeviantArt I suppose).

Here my current take on the ship (larger version in the gallery):

And on the Imperiallines logo:

Any suggestions regarding the paint scheme or logo?

I already considered a colorband from darker color to lighter color on the wave part of the logo to resemble the original more closely.

Thanks a lot for your support!

Cheers

Edit: Rob Caswell (on DeviantArt) just stated that indeed back in the days no further thoughts went into the colors of that drawing, so it's probably save to say that I can be a little creative.

I would still like to read some constructive criticism

 

[Spinward Scout]

The 'official' Imperial Starburst (according to MegaTraveller) is Yellow on a Black background.

I like the blue one, tho.

The ship is awesome!

 

[rancke]

Imperiallines is supposed to be a company whose connection to the Imperium is a secret. Which makes the name something of a puzzle, but it can be explained as a double bluff.

The original writeup of Imperiallines (in TA) made it clear that while it was owned (secretly) by an Imperium-wide parent (if one can call the Emperor's Office of Personal Transportation that), the Office owned different companies in each sector and that Imperiallines was the name of the one that covered the Spinward Marches.

Complicating the situation is the fact that Regency Sourcebook stated that Imperiallines was an Imperium-wide company, contradicting previously published information (and making it technically a megacorporation).

The following is my attempt to reconcile the two versions. As an amalgamation, it naturally contradicts each of the two versions in various ways, but I think the result works well. YMMV.

Imperiallines: Minor interstellar shipping corporation serving worlds off of the main trade routes of the Spinward Marches. Most Class C starports in the Marches are served by lmperiallines.

REFEREE'S INFORMATION: 'Imperiallines' was originally the codeword employed by the Office of Personal Transportation, the Emperor's personal intelligence service, for the Emperor's own secret courier network. The network consists of an anonymous holding company owned by the Office of Personal Transportation. This company owns, through a morass of hopefully untraceable interlocking companies and holders, a string of sector-wide companies that ostensibly have no connection to each other, such as Core Carriers in Core, Khugishu Bilanidin in Vland, Corridor Caravels in Corridor, Bright Star Lines in Deneb, etc..

Although the companies engage in real trade, their primary purpose is to provide a covert transport and courier system for the Imperial government. Imperiallines companies all use ships with the same specifications: 2000 dT jump-2 capable freighters. The ships differ in superficial details from company to company, but this is purely cosmetic and it is very easy to turn one design into another. Each company also secretly employs a version of their ship design which is capable of Jump-6. The short-legged ships handle the cargo hauling; the fast ships do the actual courier work.

Supposedly, each Imperiallines facility has two ships assigned to it, and they regularly return to that base. Actually, each facility has one jump-2 ship which works out of the base; the jump-6 ships have no permanent home, and instead move from place to place as their missions call for it.

The company in the Spinward Marches was originally supposed to be named Spinward Freighters, but for reasons that has never been made clear, the agent who handled the transaction used 'Imperiallines' instead. Rather than draw attention to the setup by changing the name, the Director decided that the name would work as a double bluff and left it alone.
​

Just to complicate matters a bit more, Behind the Claw had Imperiallines be a major investor in the Mora system, completely at odds with the small shoestring outfit described in TA. The fix I came up with was that it was talking about a completely different company:

Imperial Lines: Imperial Lines is a major shipping firm owned by the Imperial family. It mainly serves the major routes, although vessels are sometimes encountered on minor routes serving a number of contracts to the Imperial military and political services. As a result, its ships can be encountered even in backwater systems carrying ambassadors, resupplying military installations, or carrying out government-related tasks. Imperial Lines vessels are very secure and of high quality. Despite covering most of the entire Imperium, its assets are not large enough that it is considered a megacoporation, but recent growth suggests that it will soon achieve that status.

In the Marches Imperial Lines is especially well entrenched on Mora, where the company has co-financed a major space station with Delgado and Tukera.

Although sometimes confused with one or the other, Imperial Lines has nothing whatsoever to do with any one of several minor shipping lines that use close variations of its name, such as Imperiallines, Imperium Lines, Imperial Liners, etc. Such names are popular, but only the ships of Imperial Lines carries the stylized 'I' in a starburst.
​

All that was a preliminary to suggesting that Imperiallines does not need a logo that ties it in with the official Imperium, because its very real connection to the Imperium is supposed to be a secret. Instead, it is supposed to be a private company that trades on the patriotic connotations of using the Imperial name with no more right to do so than any other company registered with the Imperium.

The black and white logo in TA is slightly different from your version. The top line in what you call the wave appears to be the same color as the sunburst part or at least equally dark; there is a thin band of white separating the wave from the sunburst. There are seven bands below the top one in the wave. The first three are very thin, all three together only slightly thicker than one of the bottom four. They are either all the same color (much lighter than the top color) or, if of different colors, all equally light colors.


Hans

 

[rancke]

A small suggestion

Maybe the full starburst is reserved for actual Imperial organizations and the partially obscured starburst is used by not-officially-Imperial companies and organizations.


Hans

 

[mirc]

Hi Hans

I always liked your Imperiallines/Imperial Lines explanation a lot. I accepted it as quasi-canon IMTU right after reading it.

As for a company logo, I think that any given hauler in the Imperium will likely have its own logo. A regulation protecting the Imperial Sunburst from being exploited for commercial promotion is a very good approach, I think.

Using parts of the imperial sunburst to suggest stability and dedication (that's something the Imperium could stand for prior the Rebellion, imo) will probably be commonplace, the Imperiallines Logo will probably not draw more attention than - for example - a mobile fast food stand selling Imperium Noodles for low cash using a partial sunburst shining over a hot-dog clipart.

If anything, it would be viewed as a desperate attempt to make an insignificant and possibly struggling business appearing larger and valuable to the people.

Sometimes the smallest businesses have the boldest names, and everyone knows, so nobody cares.

Imperium HotDogs Logo ;-)

I will redo the Imperiallines Logo to get closer to the original. I quite like the red and grey one, but that's probably only because my website has matching colors.

So should we have two different colors or someting like two tones of the same color green, blue, yellow, red, etc.?

What about the ship's color scheme? Rob Caswell would have done it in one of the more colorful contemporary airline schemes, according to his comment on the image.
The ships are to appear uniformly worn and grimy, which does not necessarily mean "no colors". Of course the color will have a grunge look, peeling off in places

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Very nice!

Looks pretty good as is, although maybe cleaner.

 

[Scarecrow]

That looks terrific!

Consider colour balancing the markings. This site is an excellent pallette creator: colorschemedesigner.com/

The red sunburst for example, has a value of #dc0000 so consider accenting the ship with complementary colours such as: #008484 and #89CD00

Have a play.

Crow

PS - what's your DA url?

 

[mirc]

Ah yes... the colorschemedesigner... I used to use it so much for websites, that I didn't even think about actually using it for color schemes. Blimey!
+ PM regarding other post.

I'll work on the dirt, Andrew

 

[mirc]

So I tweaked a bit on the colors and the bump map, reassigned a few faces to their intended material definitions (windows) and left the dust layer off during rendering as it tinted the colors a bit. I also forgot to turn off the shuttle layer...

Large image here

The formerly blue stripe is now a dark mint color, as is the wave of the logo. I haven't changed the logo to resemble the original yet.

 

[PFVA63]

Hi

For some reason the stripes remind me of Coast Guard type vessels.

PF

 

[mirc]

That's because it is. I really like the coast guard stripe and try it out on any of my models. However, except for maybe the patrol cruiser I won't likely stick to it.

 

[mirc]

Frontier Transport (texture variant)

So I finally decided on a variant of my original color scheme. This time I took a bit of time to assemble a correct Imperiallines Logo. I opted to stick to a near black color with the white portion being transparent to function as the base color. The logo presented here is pure B&W.

In the image a medium to bright blue tone was chosen it's non-exotic appearance, which is probably good for a company keeping a low profile.

(larger rendering in the gallery)

I didn't use any special lighting in this render as time get more and more constrained preparing my summer vacation (there are other things that just need to be done).

I will be able to work further on this, but I will be mostly offline for about 3 weeks beginning next week (as mobile data roaming rates are still more or less prohibitive in Europe).

 

[Barsanuphius]

Nice. Have a good vacation.

 

[mirc]

I think I have finally decided on the "final" paint scheme

The following rendering (larger version here or in the gallery) shows the latest version with the lower front of the rear section forming a cargo bay ramp/door.
Fuel intakes are now located just in front of the wing pods which is not accurate for any of the published imaged but a quite good location. Perhaps I will again relocatge these to the ventral surfaces of the hull which makes them effectively invisible and rob my of an excuse for these red "DANGER, FUEL SCOOPS, GAS INTAKE" markings around the openings.

The color of the stripes got an even lighter blue tone which allows me to use the original black and white Imperiallines Logo without modification or coloring.

The doors and side gates got diagonal red and yellow warning stripes and small arrows indicate the location of rescue equipment (hatches). Ejection Seat marking above the cockpit do add to the paint scheme but might not be exactly prototypical (if one can say so for fictional craft anyway).

I am now going on to create a scene featuring at least two of my vessels. I'll keep you posted...

 

[Mithras]

For some reason the stripes remind me of Coast Guard type vessels.

PF

My thought exactly ... not the connotations you want

 

[mirc]

Originally Posted by PFVA63
For some reason the stripes remind me of Coast Guard type vessels.

PF

My thought exactly ... not the connotations you want

Well perhaps not the connotations Imperiallines wants, but as a color scheme it's okay I think. And somehow - from an artistic point of view - I just had to break the dull grey hull with some color. In my book the most current light blue stripes scheme is less associable with present day Coast Guard paint schemes.

But I am definitely open for suggestions as that's what this threat is all about.

 

[Garyius2003]

Another vote for blue

 

[MCEvans]

I like the blue also!
As for the style nothing wrong with the USCG style besides there are fewer than the Marines and posted in places that are just nasty.