Decals/painting on mecha

[False Prophet]

I have just having a talk with an old friend now living in Russia, and we talked about cars in Moscow that had all these wild-looking images hand-painted on their bodies. That makes me wonder if there are that many mecha that have unique paintings or decals. I mean, in animated shows you do not always see aces with custom insignias on their machines. And I remember seeing some WW2 fighters and bombers with some pretty elaborate paintings on their sides.

I guess that animating those things traditionally is a giant pain in the ass. Hope that more CG mecha shows would try to take a shot at elaborate markings, paintings, decals, etc.

[Mafty]

Well that actually happens quite often in Gundam. It is more often seen in extra detailed model kits and on the MSV units, but still makes appearances within the anime itself.

The Infamous Zakarello has a heart with and arrow through it decal(Something later seen on ace pilot Kayra Su in CCA's helmet)

SEED: In Astray: The Kimera unit piloted by Kisato Yamabuki has hearts and eyes painted on it.

In main SEED Cagalli's Strike Rogue has an ORB insignia with a Wolf(?) holding a flower.

SEED Destiny has the breifly seen Forbidden Vortex has what appears to be a Stingray Decal.

Speaking of CE a contest entry appars in a battle in SEED Destiny with flame decals.

The Video Game Pixy Gundam also has a arrow through heart decal (that seems to be quite popular).

[MythSearcher]

I have just having a talk with an old friend now living in Russia, and we talked about cars in Moscow that had all these wild-looking images hand-painted on their bodies. That makes me wonder if there are that many mecha that have unique paintings or decals. I mean, in animated shows you do not always see aces with custom insignias on their machines. And I remember seeing some WW2 fighters and bombers with some pretty elaborate paintings on their sides.

I guess that animating those things traditionally is a giant pain in the ass. Hope that more CG mecha shows would try to take a shot at elaborate markings, paintings, decals, etc.

One of the modelled units with a pretty clear art is the Sharkmouth Ball in MS Igloo.

You also have the Gouf Lady emblem:
https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/MS-07B_G ... MS-07B.jpg

[Dark Duel]

That Gouf reminds me of the WWII-era pinup art you'd see painted on aircraft. You see that in other franchises occasionally as well; In TCW, the Havoc Marauder was originally meant to have a similar-styled picture of Padmé on its nose, which was removed from the final episode. The same image does crop up as a poster later on...it might've been in Rebels, I can't remember. Also, Macross Frontier does it occasionally too with Sheryl and Ranka. I very recently rewatched Sayonara no Tsubasa, and in one scene in the movie the König Monster had an image of each one on different sides of its nose - Sheryl on one side, Ranka on the other. It had similar markings in the series as well IIRC.

In main SEED Cagalli's Strike Rogue has an ORB insignia with a Wolf(?) holding a flower.

I suspect that is meant to be a stylized lion's head rather than a wolf's. Her father, Lord Uzumi Nara Athha, was IIRC also referred to as the Lion of Orb, so a lion's head could be a reference to that.

[Seto Kaiba]

I have just having a talk with an old friend now living in Russia, and we talked about cars in Moscow that had all these wild-looking images hand-painted on their bodies. That makes me wonder if there are that many mecha that have unique paintings or decals. I mean, in animated shows you do not always see aces with custom insignias on their machines. And I remember seeing some WW2 fighters and bombers with some pretty elaborate paintings on their sides.

I guess that animating those things traditionally is a giant pain in the ass. Hope that more CG mecha shows would try to take a shot at elaborate markings, paintings, decals, etc.

Japan has a word for it... 痛車 (itasha), literally "a painful car". It's usually a mixture of custom paintjobs and self-adhesive decals, though.

Macross is fairly big on distinctive paintjobs for the main characters, though they vary wildly in complexity.

The big one, obviously, being Roy Focker's VF-1S with the distinctive white, black, and gold paintjob and his unit's skull-and-crossbones insignia prominently painted on both the tail and canopy cover. In the hand-animated shows that kind of thing was usually an all-over color and a colored stripe for contrast (e.g. Hikaru's white-and-red VF-1, Max's white-and-blue VF-1A/J, Sylvie's white-and-red VF-2SS, Gamlin's black-and-gold VF-17). CG enabled a great increase in complexity there, with each member of SMS Skull Platoon having their own custom paintjob, and each member of Delta flight having a custom paintjob (though in their case it's justified in that they're a demonstration team).

Nose art and other custom markings kind of went out of common use in the jet age after the Second World War, so you don't often see that kind of thing anymore in the real world. Macross has a few examples, like the nose art on Canaria's VB-6 Konig Monster in Macross Frontier. Macross Delta ran away with it, with each member of the Aerial Knights having their own heraldry on display on their Sv-262 Draken III's and all four Kairos Plus units being given a custom emblem similar to the Skull icons of Ozma and Arad or the Grim Reaper insignia of Messer Ihlefeld.

The old Macross Model Hobby Handbook has examples of nose art-style paintings meant for use on VFs and even on Destroids, though none appear in the series with such decoration.

[Arsarcana]

Five Star Stories also has a ton of decorative elements on the Mortar Headds, though as those things are pretty much showcases for the wealth and prestige of the owners it's just one more element of the ostentation.

[Mafty]

A literal nose art version of the decal can be seen in SEED and SEED Destiny. The Mobius Zero has eyes painted on its "Nose" section, as does its successor the Exus. I'm not sure if this counts as a decal but the Age-2 Dark hound has a skull motif on its chest and head. Gundam X has the Virsago ; where painting on the cockpit and the shape of the hatch , make the suit look like it has a vipers mouth on it. And both The Hyaku Shiki in Zeta Gundam and Bawoo in Gundam ZZ have Kanji painted on them.

Also most side material and CCA give Amuro his own insignia, which is either an "A" or a Unicorn.

Theres also the Quinn Roses Model Z in Code Geass:Lelouch of the Resurecction, which has a royal insignia painted on to the units cockpit hatch.

[Kuruni]

I just want to say, Russian car is anything but standard .