[douglas]

The color is part of the racial appearance (generally referred to as a shipset) you choose in empire setup. The quick and easy solution is to just choose a different shipset. If you really like everything else about the shipset though, or you want to change it for a game in progress, you can try editing it. I believe the file you want is <Space Empires directory>\Pictures\Races\<shipset directory>\<shipset name>_Main.bmp. Open it in Paint, change the rectangle of solid color just below the small version of the race flag to whatever color you want, save, and load your game.