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At night, the questions haunt me.
Does my lazor pew pew hard enough on the battlefield?
Was my opponent impressed by the vigor with which I modeled my units?
Does a plasma sniper rifle shoot a glob, a beam or a bullet?
What if I made the beam two colors?
Did I set the pin far enough in the barrel? Should I just take it out and leave a hole?
What if I put a swirl on a beam? Eh? That doin' anything?
I can't go back to using those whacky armorcast flares... can I?
Scratching, clawing at my mind.

I may never find peace, but until I do I will keep searching.


Perfect muzzle flare... where are you?

Maybe a bit of OSL on the mini itself to make the flare more cohesive? I think the boldness and shininess might be breaking the illusion and making the flare appear as a solid shape; can you get that material in translucent colours and apply a matt varnish to it?

Also, welcome back!

I'm stuck looking at that personal massager... *achem* uh... pen-like, seemingly electronic tool. Are the pieces shown made with one of those '3-D printing' pens?

As far as form is concerned... I'm torn. There are any number of ways we could assume a certain fantasy/sci-fi weapon would appear while firing, but I think that, in terms of modeling, it comes down to two things: rule of cool and a vague sense of visual plausibility. Sure, a long, smooth 'gun' barrel might be wrapped in crackling energy while firing... but one with apparent coils, ports, etc. seems a likelier candidate. That's exactly why the first image is cool and all, but I much prefer the second. Well, that and the fact that the first's [fwoosh] is slightly above the bore of the barrel.

Look to animation (esp. Japanese, as there's a lot more relevant imagery) - TV, movies, and video games, alike - for inspiration, if you haven't already. Between the tendrils, spirals, and bloom-->beam, though, I'm pretty confident that you already have. All I can say with surety is: 1) I've been less than helpful and 2) of the dozen you've already shown, at least a few of them work pretty well.

Assuming this is asking for critique on the pics: the fluourescent colours may be bright, but they make the effects pieces look like novelty cotton wool (cotton candy for the atlantically challenged). Whether a muzzle flash or a beam of light from an energy weapon, or even lightning crackling round the barrel, it needs a very light colour at it's core - up to bright white - with hints of those base colours at the edges. Do an image search for muzzle flashes and lightning (the real things, preferably) and see where all the colour is.

It's like reverse shading or pre-OSL. And as Lindsay says, a bit of OSL on the mini probably wouldn't go amiss either.

Lindsay- I guess I could use hot glue, but I would have to use something like clear resin ( and the a mold :/) in order to keep rigidity on ones as long as that blue one. Thanks for your confidence in my painting, but I've always kinda just enjoyed the assembly/modding process. Which beam would you choose to paint? Good to talk shop again.
Oadie- The dildo in question is actually one of those 3D doodlers, yes. Good eye on the blue fwoosh not being attached straight. I'd fix it, but I kinda already replaced it a dozen times. I'm uh... I'm hard on my models. That it made it that far into a metroid paint job before I moved on to the next thing is above average for me. My meta is rules lawyering dog turds that play gray though, so there's that.
Vermis- Yeah, the colors are more just what I had laying around in unmelted pva wire. Sweet, sweet candy colored wire is good for just playing around with because I need all my greens and browns for trees. You understand. I'll try a few things to get the colors right and update. I'm thinking of glazing over the wire with a clear epoxy dip and a black light led for an actual glow.

I could teach you, but I'd have to charge.

I think the first beam - the blue one - shows the most promise. The swirls of energy might be a big much - the barrel end discharge and fine lance of light may well be enough to carry it off.

Now that I think about it, translucent might not be as effective as fluorescent. Cyan would probably work better than the (little-u) ultramarine you've got there. But I'd definitely want to give the energy a matt varnish - it should not have any shine to it at all.