"Different colors for X Wing squadrons" Topic

All of the X Wings come with red striping. I was thinking of doing some repaints with different color striping to designate Blue and other color squadrons, etc. I've tried to search for pictures and found nothing about this. Would this be cannon? Is this in the novels? Or were all X Wings supposed to have red striping? What do you think?

This is, as far as I know, actually one of those great unresolved questions (great at least if you're interested in the Rebel Alliance TO&E) of Star Wars.

Based on what we see in ANH is appears that squadrons are indeed color-coded, with the X-wings being Red Squadron and the Y-wings being Gold Squadron with markings to match.

In ROTJ though the B-wings are supposed to be Blue Squadron and have some blue markings, while the A-Wings are supposed to be Green Squadron but also have red markings! So based on ROTJ is appears that squadron name != color scheme. I have heard that the A-wings were supposed to originally be in a green scheme but this didn't work with the green-screen filming techniques. Of course there is also Rouge Squadron, which is not color-based.

Moving into non-movie territory, the X-wing computer game retained the different squadron designations based on color, and there were both Red Squadron X-wings and Blue Squadron X-wings but I do not remember if they updated the in-game models to match. There was also some overlap; I think I remember in one mission there were Blue Squadron X-wings and a few missions earlier there had been Blue Squadron Y-wings. So I think that the X-Wing games were treaty squadrons as something more like a wing.

I know other books and EU sources also have additional non-color coded squadron names.

My personal take on this is that each Rebel Alliance Fighter Wing (36 fighters, iirc) would each have a Red, Blue and Gold (or whatever) squadron. So there'd be 101st Wing, Red Squadron, 102nd Wing, Red Squadron, etc. There may have been attempts to keep to a color scheme = type across the entire Alliance (so all X-wings were supposed to be 'Red Squadron'), but due to the ad-hoc nature of the Alliance procurement system this broke down in practice. Anyway, that is just my take on this topic, I'd interested in hearing if someone has more information.

-Will

As a historical note, the X-wings in ANH were supposed to have Blue markings, but that didn't work against Blue screens (similar to that mentioned above).

In Universe: Since squadrons were constantly being ground down, and augmented with whoever happened to be in the sector, color schemes were rarely consistent in a squadron. Yavin might have gotten a little more spit and polish since they were the home guard of the Alliance, and you'd want anyone touring the place thinking about joining to see a functional army, not a bunch of teenagers in hotrods looking to cause trouble.

In Reality: Model makers were probably making/painting models well before the final script was finalized. Also, the same half-dozen models were going to represent scores of ships, painting markings consistent with a single squadron (much less individual ships), was counter-productive. Besides, in ROTJ, how many times were you able to pick out the individual color schemes in the theater when you saw it – one, two shots? Only us geeks that pour over individual frames of film and behind-the-scenes shots from the DVD extras would ever notice (or care).

The red on white has also been interpreted as a poke at the Empire, as red and white were the colors of the Republic.

Blue and green, plus even yellow, seem logical to me. Of course, don't know if anything other than blue would be official for the X-Wings.

I've seen both blue and green Titanium diecast A-Wings, and blue B-Wings.

I have some of the SB SW fighters to paint, and my take is that I'll paint each squadron as a colour, but they probably repeat across types of fighters. And they still won't actually represent any squadron's name. I always figured Red & Gold squadrons were just the day's codes.

Thanks fellas. I think I'm gonna go ahead and try it on a couple. It is a sci fi game after all. Not like there's an historical precedent to follow.