I can´t think of a good reason as to why he would paint it up except that maybe he was bored or it was on a whim.

If you have read the first books of captain america you all have seen that it wasn’t the round shield he uses now. It’s was a triangle shield. Then the cap was frosen when they found him they give a new shield made by adamatium (like wolverine claws).

Later then when cap leaves being captain america and Tony Stark made and give him a new shield.

So if you link all together the easter egg in the movie is not that wrong.

When Rogers returns from suspended animation, Tony Stark “improves” the shield by incorporating electronic and magnetic components in it so that Rogers could even control it in flight. However, Rogers soon discards the additional components because he finds that it upsets the balance of the shield when thrown, which is Rogers’ ultimate preference.

Personally, after a bit of pause and frame by frame – it’s definitely the shield with ‘maybe’ some blue car headlight etc stuff being reflected ‘off’ the shield. Either way, there could be any number of reasons why Tony has the shield that will NOT blow huge holes in the marvel mythos of Cap. Maybe the shield was recovered at some point by somebody ‘other’ than S.H.I.E.L.D. and Tony had been analyzing it for years because of the unusual properties its always been commented to have due to its unique composition. Tony is a geek and in the movie an apparent collector of rare cool stuff. If he presents it back to Cap in an eventual Avengers movie, it won’t ~break~ any continuity that matters… ALL of the latest generation of marvel movie adaptations have altered some of the ‘details’ behind things like origins… many of which were the way they were in the original comics as “signs of the times”. The thing that many comics fans have appreciated about many of the latest crop of movies is that much of the “spirit” is intact in the film adaptations…

Who gives a flying rats arse if Cap hasnt been entombed in ice WITH his shield for decades… LONG LIVE THE EASTER EGGS!

Dr. Maclain did this independently and never worked for Stark Industries. He did later work for s.h.i.e.l.d. Tony Stark never developed Cap’s Shield, So all this would be is another gross screw up of yet another comic book storyline.

I’m not saying that there shouldn’t been tie ins in movies what I am saying is, Captain America first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). Ironman first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963),the same year The Avengers Team was put together in The Avengers #1 (Sept. 1963). Cap came first, Tony did not make the sheild (He did however upgrade it before Cap was unthawed) The guy that wrote the article didn’t know that and if they don’t do Captain America next and do some type of a tie in at that point to Ironman, it will screw everything up. Captain America movie should have come first.