Those are GORGEOUS!
the shapes have a similar style to your GMDA, don't they? is that coincidence?
Actually, both GMDA and these are derived from when Tart took one of my earlier sprites in the Sprite Judgement thread, and demonstrated exactly how far you can go with ship painting. I had originally been constrained to a classical, 16-bit approach, thinking you had to keep colour range down and limit yourself. The Lasher, Wolf and Tarsus/Condors show that. Tart, however, elegantly showed exactly how far you CAN go with ship painting:
While discussing exactly why I thought it was awesome, and why I wouldn't want it as a part of the GMDA fleet (It looked WAY too awesome), I made a comment ("stick purple on it and it'll look like a CABAL ship"), which Helmut picked up on, and carried it over onto these beautiful boats. So it's all Tart's fault.