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Ive recently gotten into battletech alphastrike and i have decided to paint my mechs as the 15th arcturan guards during the clan invasion. My problem is that every picture of them has a different house symbol an i was wondering which one was cononicly used during the clan invasion, i.e the federated Commonwealth, Lyran Alliance or the house Steiner symbol

Well, at the time of the invasion I'd say either use the FedCom or the house logo. You might even mix it up to reflect a more traditionalist outlook on some of the pilots.

Thedorklord wrote:
Ive recently gotten into battletech alphastrike and i have decided to paint my mechs as the 15th arcturan guards during the clan invasion. My problem is that every picture of them has a different house symbol an i was wondering which one was cononicly used during the clan invasion, i.e the federated Commonwealth, Lyran Alliance or the house Steiner symbol

Sarna.net, the Battletech Wiki, has your answer. Good luck!

During the Clan Invasion would use the Federated Commonwealth version.

Thanks for the help ill be useing the house steiner logo.

All FedCom units would by 3050 potray the FedCom fist and sunburst, some backwater units on the preiphery fringe might not bother, Arcturan Guard would not be one of them. A few units harbouring anti Davion or Steiner sentiments might flatly refuse, but most of those were dealt with by the time the clans turned up. Arcturans are house Steiner fanatics, so it would not be too out of character for them to 'forget' to add the sunburst to the house Steiner icon. While these sentiments were more common on and around Skye it might be possible they were replicated elsewhere.

I will be assuming so for my own Lyran mech company, which other than being Lyran is deliberartely generic. My reason for this is because I prefer 3025 over other eras, and post Tukkayid circa 3055 as a second. Having forgotten house mechs in Lyran Commonwealth colours fits best.

As a general rule you might not want to paint yourself into a corner (literally) with regards to unit designation. Battletech is cheap enough compared to Warhammer that you can afford multiple companies with individual designations and time settings. But the more generic your mechs the wider the time and place they can be set.
Ultimately the more exact and accurate you make your mechs the narrower the accuracy. a force of generic Lyran mechs can fit in anywhere, but your specified Arcturan Guards might fit in less well at a battle they didn't participate in.
If that matters to you it likely matters both ways.

FASA sold campaign books including a set of scenarios and a company of exact mechs with colour schemes, that could be fun to replicate, but by and large generic is the way to go.
Paint your mechs the colours you like, most regiments have a parade colour and one or more field colours. Choose any. You can buy decals for the unit, clan or house designation you want.
If the canon colour is not one you want, change it. Most units will switch to urban or desert or rural camo as required, and if that doesn't fit the environment its because they didn't get to change the paintjob between drops. This is also why many regiments try a 'loud and proud' colour scheme instead. mechs are big, not very subtle and hard to hide unless you get the camo right for the environment, which can change at the speed their dropship travels.