diff --git a/web/src/screens/hangar.ts b/web/src/screens/hangar.ts
index a35affd..914eb97 100644
--- a/web/src/screens/hangar.ts
+++ b/web/src/screens/hangar.ts
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
  *   rather than offering a button that would lose the work.
  */
 
-import { currentSession } from "../api";
+import { type Session, currentSession } from "../api";
 import { footer } from "../chrome";
 import { el, render } from "../dom";
 import { library } from "../library";
@@ -1080,8 +1080,27 @@ export function hangarScreen(): Node[] {
     return picker;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * The strip, once the session read has answered.
+   *
+   * One picker, not two. A picker built before the answer has to be a
+   * signed-out one, which rolls a camo and repaints every sprite on the
+   * screen — so a player with a default of their own watched the hangar open
+   * in a random paint and then change to theirs a moment later. The read is a
+   * promise the masthead has already started, so what this waits on is
+   * usually already in flight.
+   */
+  function mountCamo(session: Session | null): void {
+    camo.replaceChildren(follow(camoPicker(session, "random")).node);
+  }
+
   const camo = el("section", { className: "card hangar-camo" }, [
-    follow(camoPicker(null, "random")).node,
+    // The picker's own opening shape, so the card does not resize under the
+    // strip when the real one replaces this.
+    el("div", { className: "choice camo-pick" }, [
+      el("strong", { textContent: "Camo" }),
+      el("p", { className: "hint", textContent: "Reading your camo…" }),
+    ]),
   ]);
 
   const screen = el("div", { className: "hangar" }, [
@@ -1142,14 +1161,14 @@ export function hangarScreen(): Node[] {
   draw();
 
   void currentSession()
-    .then((session) => {
-      if (!session) return;
-      camo.replaceChildren(follow(camoPicker(session, "random")).node);
-    })
+    .then(mountCamo)
     .catch((error: unknown) => {
       // The API being down costs the camo strip and nothing else: the library
-      // is a published file and the force is arithmetic over it.
+      // is a published file and the force is arithmetic over it. The strip
+      // still goes up, as the signed-out one: no saved camo to read, but None
+      // and a roll need no account and no API.
       console.warn("hangar: the session could not be read", error);
+      mountCamo(null);
     });
 
   // Which library, asked of the API rather than compiled in, so a helm