Vanity shield

A vanity shield was a type of shield array designed for use by the Alpha Quadrant Alliance. Installing a vanity shield into a ship's visual slot for shields altered the color scheme of a spacecraft's outer hull, i.e. a vessel's "skin". 

History and specifications
In the early 25th century, any starship class came with a default material applied. This material could be changed by the ship's commanding officer at authorized facilities with shipyards. In 2409, some shield arrays, in addition to their regular use, overrode the ship's visual appearance with a new color scheme. This effect could be disabled. Some shield only changed parts of a ship's appearance.

For example, the Reman prototype covariant shield array was a covariant shield array Reman Resistance manufacture applied a Reman hull appearance when fitted. 

When the Dominion became increasingly involved again with galactic affairs in 2410, the Alpha Quadrant Alliance upped its reputation system limit to Tier 6. One of the technologies gained by AQA commanding officers by reaching Tier 6 reputation within the reputation was a dedicated vanity shield. 

During the next Lohlunat Festival, the Risians offered baseball-themed vanity shields to AQA vacationers, with each one representing a team in the Milky Way League. 

List of vanity shields
Some vanity shields were faction-specific and could not be used by each member of the AQA.

Shields with visual properties
These shields were part of space sets and not purely aesthetical.
 * Aegis covariant shield array (Aegis space set)
 * assimilated regenerative shield array (Borg space set)
 * Bajor defense covariant shield array (Bajor Defense)
 * Jem'Hadar resilient shields (Jem'Hadar space set)
 * Reman prototype covariant shield array (Reman advanced prototype space set)

Tier 5 reputation
These shields were part of space sets and not purely aesthetical.
 * Adapted KHG (Adapted KHG)
 * Adapted MACO (Adapted M.A.C.O.)
 * Counter Command bio-molecular reactive shielding
 * Delta Alliance Unimatrix
 * dielectric oscillation resilient shields (Breen absolute zero space set)
 * Dyson Joint Command
 * Iconian Resistance
 * Lukari Restoration Initiative
 * Nukara Crystalline
 * Omega Force
 * prevailing resilient shield array (prevailing regalia space set)
 * Romulan advanced prototype
 * Temporal Defense Initiative
 * Terran Task Force

Tier 6 reputation
These shield arrays had no further function beyond changing hull appearance.
 * 8472 Counter Command vanity shield
 * Competitive Wargames vanity shield
 * Delta Alliance vanity shield
 * Dyson Joint Command T6
 * Gamma Task Force vanity shield
 * Iconian Resistance T6
 * Lukari Restoration Initiative vanity shield
 * New Romulus vanity shield (New Romulus Reman)
 * Nukara Strikeforce vanity shield
 * Omega Force T6
 * Terran Task Force vanity shield

Lock box salvage
These shield arrays had no further function beyond changing hull appearance, and were sponsored by the Lobi Crystal Consortium.
 * Discovery (FED and KDF variants)
 * Emperor's vanity shield
 * Ferengi vanity shield
 * Hur'q vanity shield
 * Tzenkethi vanity shield

Baseball
These shield arrays had no further function beyond changing hull appearance, and were sponsored by the Milky Way League of baseball.
 * Bozeman Titans vanity shield
 * Caitian Claws vanity shield
 * Denebian Slime Devils vanity shield
 * Ferenginar Liquidators vanity shield
 * Logicians vanity shield (Vulcan Logicians)
 * Niners vanity shield (Deep Space "Niners")