for those of you running a mac and annoyed that you cant just paste into MSPAINT, heres a tutorial on how to "transpose" the vanilla palette onto your sprites using gimp. you should be able to use paintbrush, i would have thought (for those with the capacity to try this, hit me up with a reply), but here we go.

download the GIMP. (gimp.org) install it.
open base.rte/palette.bmp
in the main GIMP window, go to file -> dialogs -> Palettes
right click the list, and click "import palette"
select the image "palette.bmp" to import from.
save the palette appropriately, by inputting a name in the import palette dialog.
open your sprite, and go to image -> mode -> indexed and select your palette.
save your image.

you are done

In newer versions of Gimp (2.6.4 is what I use, this probably applies to the 2.6.x series), the palettes dialog is accessed through "Windows - Dockable Dialogs - Palettes".
There's also an easier way to get the palette, if you know where Gimp puts its stuff. For me it's under "My documents\User\.Gimp2.6\".
There, drop this palette file in the "palettes" folder and restart Gimp if it's open.
This palette file will index terrain and bunkermodule material definitions.

ah, sorry, i opened up GIMPPortable from my usb stick. its 2.4.x, so i was hoping there wouldnt be any changes. ohwell.