Would Ad-Mech paint Titans in Camoflage patterns?

[ManOfRust]

Hi All,

I was reading my Titan comics from long-departed and much-missed Warhammer Monthly and it occured to me that Imperious Dictatio was pretty much in OliveCamo paint.

Most of the ForgeWorld titans are all pretty heraldic and colourful and I guess there are reasons both to camo-paint a titan for it's combat theatre and also not to bother (pretty big target anyway you look at it). There were some threads from many moons ago that discuss paint schemes for epic but with titans being a bigger(!) part of the mainstream 40K battlefield now that Apocalypse and larger games are coming into focus what are warseerites views on painting your titans?

Hands up who owns a titan (or two!) and how you have painted yours? Any justifications for your outrageous purple and bone quartered paint job?

I should probably justify this being in the background forum by saying that I am more interested in peoples thoughts for the paint-schemes/colouration of titans than the armies they collect but this has a part in the discussion as the background inevitably feeds off what hobbyists actually do.

I personally do not own a titan but if I did field such a thing for my Dark Eldar (and believe me I would have no compunction against doing so using the forgeworld offerings) I would probably paint it in some midnight-hued, predator-esque/bent-light/surface camo technique. My justification? Nothing scarier than a Giant that against all reason you cannot see, that stalks out of the twilight and smashes your strongpoints, leaving you suddenly open to the dark and forced to fight for your lives...

[nagash66]

I would say apply the same guidelines as camo marines.

Some Legions would do it, some would find the idea offensive and every shade of the rainbow in between.

[Endemion]

There could be an argument for painting them in dazzle camoflage, like WWII battleships, but I'm not sure how good it would look.

[Lord-Caerolion]

The thing is, there's not much point in applying camo to a Titan. They're too big to blend in to the background, and the sheer amount of noise and heat they'd give out means they'd light up any auspex scanning for them. They take too long to power up to even consider trying to ambush someone with them. Basically, Titans are painted the way they are to maximise the psychological impact of such machines on nearby troops, whether by bolstering the morale of friendly units that they've got Titan support, or breaking the resolve of the enemy who've got to go up against Titans.

Edit: I could see dazzle camoflage working, possibly, but these are supposed to be the God-Machines of Mars. They aren't supposed to be hidden, they're supposed to be proudly standing tall while annihilating the enemies of Man in an unceasing barrage of laser, shell and plasma.

[The bearded one]

Maybe they could paint them the same colour as the sky

[Lupe]

Maybe they could paint them the same colour as the sky

That's Orky logic, but it's damn crazy enough to work...

[ominus]

One of my favorite paint schemes in the old MW4 games was called "Tree Line " I belive. It had the bottom of the mech painted forest green and the top half sky blue. That would look pretty awesome on a titan. Realistically however I would think titans change battle grounds and even planets to rapidly to repaint it for each deployment. That would be a crap load of paint.

[Jericho]

MW4 had some badass color schemes, for sure. Royal Harrier was my favorite (Catachan Green and Shadow Grey, more or less, with some golden yellow accent colors).

For 40k, some titans have been shown to have some camo on them (including one of the FW studio Warhounds IIRC), but it's often a mix of camo with some heraldic colors and whatnot. If you want to put camo on a Titan I don't think you'd be committing heresy.

[Lord Damocles]

The Warhound in Apocalypse (eg. pg.60) appears to be in desert camoflage.

I'm pretty sure that I've seen an Epic scale Warlord in the same scheme, although I can't recall where.

[AndrewGPaul]

The studio miniature for the Epic Warlord is in olive drab, I suppose, and some of the old Legion colour schemes in 1st edition Adeptus Titanicus had camouflage patterns on the carapace and shin armour plates. Granted, the rest of the titan might have been black and red, so I doubt the camo was that effective. See the Storm Lords legion for one example (in urban camo): http://taran.pagesperso-orange.fr/admech_legion.htm

[Connor MacLeod]

I think Titans in the old Adeptus Titanicus stuff had access to cameleoline for their Titans, so they could be camo'ed. Of course back then they could also stick jump packs on Titans and the Imperium had realtime TV broadcasts across the Imperium (and shows dedicated to showing off Titans.) IIRC as well. :P

[Born Again]

I imagine it wouldn't be unheard of to paint them in a colour appropriate to their environment - ie; sandy brown on a desert world - but I don't imagine they'd have actual camoflage patterning on them. Not really much point, there's nothing stealthy about a 50-foot tall death machine, and the only way to hide it anyway would be to stand it behind a very large, solid building or mountain.

[Leftenant Gashrog]

and some of the old Legion colour schemes in 1st edition Adeptus Titanicus had camouflage patterns on the carapace and shin armour plates. Granted, the rest of the titan might have been black and red, so I doubt the camo was that effective.

If memory serves the (not unreasonable I think) rationale given was that it was a waste of time trying to camouflage them against ground forces, but that camouflaging the carapace could be effective against orbital or high altitude sensors.

[Gorbad Ironclaw]

Any ship in orbit or any high flying plane that are relaying on visuals to target the titan are unlikely to be that dangerous. Titans just don't hide. As soon as they are powered up they will be giving the game away. I would imagine their void shields alone would make them impossible to miss with any sort of sensor you would use to track/target them.

[MajorWesJanson]

Another use for camouflage would be the opposite direction- not camouflage for themselves, but patterns to either disguise lesser forces, or draw attention from lesser troops.

[TheDungen]

actually once they start firing there will be so much dust on the wind that camo becomes a good idea again.

[Dakkagor]

Titanicus had titans using the environment to stage ambushes on titans, armour and infantry using the terrain. It was a forge world, so the combinations of large metal deposits, dust clouds and huge buildings made it quite easy to conceal titans for ambushes, even from foot troops. think of all that massive architecture you see in artwork of hive cities, imagine it on fire and pumping out vast clouds of smoke, and suddenly its possible for a titan to skulk about in there.

[AlexHolker]

There could be an argument for painting them in dazzle camoflage, like WWII battleships, but I'm not sure how good it would look.

That's pretty much how Eldar holofields work, isn't it?

Edit: I could see dazzle camoflage working, possibly, but these are supposed to be the God-Machines of Mars. They aren't supposed to be hidden, they're supposed to be proudly standing tall while annihilating the enemies of Man in an unceasing barrage of laser, shell and plasma.

Dazzle camouflage doesn't hide you, it's to make it difficult to tell what you're doing.

On that note: perhaps they should paint the Titans with optical illusions of the "Ow, my brain!" variety.

[ManOfRust]

Dazzle camouflage doesn't hide you, it's to make it difficult to tell what you're doing.

On that note: perhaps they should paint the Titans with optical illusions of the "Ow, my brain!" variety.

This is what eye-watering chaos sigils do isn't it? Plus the whole bleeding from the face issue...

I guess the question for Imperial Titans is whether camouflage might provide better or just different protection than void shields or mobility alone.

LoS opponents are going to have a hard time failing to see where your titan physically is but effective camo may cause them to miss the vulnerable(!) points that they would aim at. Equally, I'm pretty sure void shields have some degree of distortion on light passing through them so camouflage may be more effective, even as it is less relevant (if the titan has its shields lit, enemies will either be aiming at the void intersections or won't be aiming at all!).

Aircraft or low orbit assailants may be able to locate the general location of the titan really easily (anything as electro-magnetically noisy as a void is going to be a pretty big beacon) but could still easily miss a targeted shot that would achieve a kill.

Seeing that shielded titans can survive nukes and plasma bombardment (at least, anything less than a direct hit) it seems that anything that the Titan can do to avoid that scale of incoming fire is worth doing.

It is probably a very different ballgame if the target titan has no shields or is relying on dense atmospheric or physical cover. Large real world objects (like buildings) that are camouflaged effectively can be incredibly difficult to pick out from even quite short battlefield distances (100-250m) simply due to the shift in perspective. You see it, but you don't know what you're seeing.

[aim]

How do you camo a vehicle big enough to have a city on its shoulders? Grey shins with the rest of it blue? :\