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Intro

Lately i see a lot of people saying "I'm to lazy to paint" or "i'm shit at painting" and honestly it's not even that hard, i'll be going through some basics, some tips and some other stuff, hope this helps you if you're searching for it!


Basics


UI

First off you'll want to open Paint Mode.
image https://i.imgur.com/G8lDM5n.png
To do so click the Palettes.

Then of you will be greeted to this fresh UI. (User Interface)
image https://i.imgur.com/LCiywTs.png
This is the whole UI with the Paint bar selected, there we can see mainly a color wheel, some roof textures and other tabs.
image https://i.imgur.com/RFY5ji3.png
And this is the Decal bar in this case Low.

From left to right we have
a) Colour wheel

b) A small menu
image https://i.imgur.com/ZM28DaE.png
There you can select Move, Select (You can copy cut delete and paste with that), Delete and finally we have Mirror and Brush Size (Brush Size only works with 1x1 decals)

c) Decal selection (here you can choose the decals you want to use)

Then we have these:
image https://i.imgur.com/cGL1TG0.png
Saving a ship design will save the position of all decals.
Saving a paint scheme will save the all the colours.
Then we have Swap and Clear, those split into more options.
image https://i.imgur.com/8scO1p0.png
image https://i.imgur.com/bEaLXZe.png


Starting to Paint

When you're starting you will want to pick some well fitting colours, whatever you like. Then try out decal combinations, some lines here and there, a name here some symbols there like a skull.

Also there are 2 groups of decals Low and High pretty self explanatory, you can place these on top of each other but you can't place the same group on itself.


Tips and Tricks


Lines are a very basic way to colour a ship but still look better than nothing.
image https://i.imgur.com/ZfPtXdR.png

You can make some nice custom logo's using high and low decals.
image https://i.imgur.com/OVWW3BS.png

You can use black decals (or a darker version of the paint) to add depth to the ship.

image https://i.imgur.com/dNltIYY.png

Some Comunity Tips:

kieffer5101

Stay consistent, you don't want one part of your ship use a lot of curved decals and another part use a lot of strait decals, also you don't want to detail one part to much and not have the same consistency of detail somewhere else.
Don't put to much detail on a big ship, you just don't need it, also you might get discouraged and start to give it less detail (which I talked about in tip 2) or even discontinue the project as a whole.> use matching colors, like
@Oneye said before me. Some colors just really don't mix.
-- I like to use white grey and black.

Here's a good thread for ideas!
Hosted by oneye i made some paint jobs too, Ship Painting


End

That's it for this tutorial hope it helped you make some nice paint, and i hope i can see more well painted ships guys!

Minion222 I'm horrible at paining: but that doesn't stop me from trying!

    plastering some paint onto my faction's ship

    image https://i.imgur.com/zvNyfJy.png

    AHAH
    image https://i.imgur.com/BnoVEtz.gif
    wait....i fuked up......
    cries
    The Painting Adventure of Dumb

    Dumb Shit happens xD

    Dumb
    image https://i.imgur.com/jirqG35.png
    I'm yet to paint this fully

    Minion222 shit happens quite alot to my paints lol
    image https://i.imgur.com/CAwOHNm.png
    (V0.1)

    image https://i.imgur.com/t5jPgvl.png
    (V0.2)
    (made sleeker and more like the actual thing,yet the shades still looks weird for me ;/ )

    Minion222 oh wow thats a big boi
    (thats why i don't build big ships like these lol,require too much intellect and asethetic skills from me)

      Minion222 neat little ship,tho that bow portion with the shadow looks abit weird to me,especially when you already got those specks of blue which makes the bow looks sharper but with the shade you make the "controlroom" look round and like a civilian transport (which i guess it is judging on its loadout,but the rounded shade don't match that "pointy" nose)

        Dumb It is obviously a Civilian vechicle i mean did you not see it's a Fed-Ex truck?

          Minion222 that "Fed" in Fed-Ex is covered by the blue paint lol

            Minion222 I've looked at that space truck so many times that i thought i seen all the details.
            Yet i didn't notice Fed-Ex written on it.

            image https://i.imgur.com/woMQ09D.png

            I usually use a darker color of the ship's paint to make layers, rather than using shadows (primarily because there is no shadow wedges).

            image https://i.imgur.com/xDugye6.png

            However, on ships like these (ship is W.I.P. btw), I like to use shadows (This isn't a very good example of shadowed ships. I was disappointed with this one.)

            Minion222 Great guide! Maybe you could add a section on making good color schemes, cause sometimes I see a lot of neon green and blue (and nothing else), or dark browns and purples or something... Just really bad color schemes.

            Minion222 some tips,

            • use matching colors, like @Oneye said before me. Some colors just really don't mix. -- I like to use white grey and black.

            • Stay consistent, you dont want one part of your ship use a lot of curved decals and anotber part use a lot of strait decals, also you dont want to detail one part to much and not have the same consistency of detail somewhere else.

            • Dont put to much detail on a big ship, you just don't need it, also you moght get discouraged and start to give it less detail (which I talked about in tip 2) or even discontinue the project as a whole.

            (Nice guide minion, I was thinking of making one about painting myself but, I'm not so good at explaining things so instead I waited till someone else nade one. 😉)

            RedAndCosmoteer Yep. Great shading (but I don't think shadow wedges exist). Still, great shading.

            Minion222 Excellent tutorial for any new Cosmoteers out there! I tend to use black decals, such as this BC Praetorian here, to give depth, and to simulate and elevated platform. And I also like to use only lines and letters or numbers, as to me, I like to keep painting as simple and minimalistic as possible, while being aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

            image https://i.imgur.com/ivM4Zij.png

            Oneye

            Oneye Great guide! Maybe you could add a section on making good color schemes, cause sometimes I see a lot of neon green and blue (and nothing else), or dark browns and purples or something... Just really bad color schemes.

            See that's more of a basic art class thing to know i mean it's just smple and also it's very much a personal preference thing so some people may actually like certain colour together and some mey not even if they're horrible at times.

            kieffer5101
            Included your tips too since they're just allround useful so there they're on the bottom of tips