diff --git a/src/mol-theme/color.ts b/src/mol-theme/color.ts
index 45fb46faf10f4d65cb2bd87739eae4b796a20dde..bc8104c95c6d216ce72f6192a8d32765ae46ca1d 100644
--- a/src/mol-theme/color.ts
+++ b/src/mol-theme/color.ts
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ import { UncertaintyColorThemeProvider } from './color/uncertainty';
 import { EntitySourceColorThemeProvider } from './color/entity-source';
 import { IllustrativeColorThemeProvider } from './color/illustrative';
 import { HydrophobicityColorThemeProvider } from './color/hydrophobicity';
+import { ModelIndexColorThemeProvider } from './color/model-index';
 
 export type LocationColor = (location: Location, isSecondary: boolean) => Color
 
@@ -79,6 +80,7 @@ export const BuiltInColorThemes = {
     'entity-source': EntitySourceColorThemeProvider,
     'hydrophobicity': HydrophobicityColorThemeProvider,
     'illustrative': IllustrativeColorThemeProvider,
+    'model-index': ModelIndexColorThemeProvider,
     'molecule-type': MoleculeTypeColorThemeProvider,
     'polymer-id': PolymerIdColorThemeProvider,
     'polymer-index': PolymerIndexColorThemeProvider,
diff --git a/src/mol-theme/color/model-index.ts b/src/mol-theme/color/model-index.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1478125cdaafe35338727786b150b1957ee01eb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/mol-theme/color/model-index.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+/**
+ * Copyright (c) 2019 mol* contributors, licensed under MIT, See LICENSE file for more info.
+ *
+ * @author Alexander Rose <alexander.rose@weirdbyte.de>
+ */
+
+import { Color } from '../../mol-util/color';
+import { Location } from '../../mol-model/location';
+import { StructureElement, Link } from '../../mol-model/structure';
+import { ColorTheme, LocationColor } from '../color';
+import { ParamDefinition as PD } from '../../mol-util/param-definition'
+import { ThemeDataContext } from '../../mol-theme/theme';
+import { ScaleLegend } from '../../mol-util/color/scale';
+import { getPaletteParams, getPalette } from './util';
+import { TableLegend } from '../../mol-util/color/tables';
+
+const DefaultColor = Color(0xCCCCCC)
+const Description = 'Gives every model a unique color based on the position (index) of the model in the list of models in the structure.'
+
+export const ModelIndexColorThemeParams = {
+    ...getPaletteParams({ scaleList: 'RedYellowBlue' }),
+}
+export type ModelIndexColorThemeParams = typeof ModelIndexColorThemeParams
+export function getModelIndexColorThemeParams(ctx: ThemeDataContext) {
+    return ModelIndexColorThemeParams // TODO return copy
+}
+
+export function ModelIndexColorTheme(ctx: ThemeDataContext, props: PD.Values<ModelIndexColorThemeParams>): ColorTheme<ModelIndexColorThemeParams> {
+    let color: LocationColor
+    let legend: ScaleLegend | TableLegend | undefined
+
+    if (ctx.structure) {
+        const { models } = ctx.structure
+        const palette = getPalette(models.length, props)
+        legend = palette.legend
+        const modelColor = new Map<string, Color>()
+        for (let i = 0, il = models.length; i <il; ++i) {
+            modelColor.set(models[i].id, palette.color(i))
+        }
+
+        color = (location: Location): Color => {
+            if (StructureElement.isLocation(location)) {
+                return modelColor.get(location.unit.model.id)!
+            } else if (Link.isLocation(location)) {
+                return modelColor.get(location.aUnit.model.id)!
+            }
+            return DefaultColor
+        }
+    } else {
+        color = () => DefaultColor
+    }
+
+    return {
+        factory: ModelIndexColorTheme,
+        granularity: 'instance',
+        color,
+        props,
+        description: Description,
+        legend
+    }
+}
+
+export const ModelIndexColorThemeProvider: ColorTheme.Provider<ModelIndexColorThemeParams> = {
+    label: 'Model Index',
+    factory: ModelIndexColorTheme,
+    getParams: getModelIndexColorThemeParams,
+    defaultValues: PD.getDefaultValues(ModelIndexColorThemeParams),
+    isApplicable: (ctx: ThemeDataContext) => !!ctx.structure
+}
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