Help! Painting Plasma Weapons (SM)

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**Gitsplitta**

I have never, in my life.... painted up a good looking plasma weapon. Any one have any good ideas? Specifically for the ribbed section in the middle top... but I'll take anything I can get. I want to make them look unique so they're easy to see, and showy, so their cool to see.

Thx!

**~UnDeAd~**

Hello Gitsplitta ,

here is a plasma weapon i did on one of my chaos space marines

I used the following paints :

GW - Ice blue
GW - skull white
GW - Arshman blue

Hope this helps ~UnDeAd~

**jbunny**

I have no pics but try mixign 50-50 either a green or blue with Boltgun metal. I use it a good bit for power weapons.

**Gitsplitta**

Love the glow on the facing bits.... nice touch!

**~UnDeAd~**

Hope this is what you were looking for , i love painting plasma weapons.

~UnDeAd~

**FoxPhoenix135**

Green also works particularly well. I always think of Halo's plasma pistols when doing mine.

**Corennus**

Top tips for good plasma...

Boltgun metal on the metal parts up to the "barrel" part of the gun.

Mithril Silver over the barrel of the gun.

Enchanted Blue first over the "plasma chamber" part.

Ice Blue highlight over the raised sections of the plasma chamber, and alsp in the recesses of the barrel (the long grooves).

Gold for the wires and bolts on the side of the weapon.

Brown for the stock grip (the side that goes agaisnt the shoulder).

Hope that helps

**Murray**

you could even do blue, the skys the limit with plasma guns tbh - i like green, metal (i think it as a coil unheated and as it heats up it goes to blue for e.g.) orange and blue.

**BigBadWolf37**

I've been thinking of doing mine bleached bone, with a purple ink wash, then highlighted with white so that it looks like its glowing with energy but its

hot. Is plasma after all.

**cosmic pixie**

That sounds really good, wolf. I might try it out.

**Gitsplitta**

Those are great suggestions! I'll do so 'sperimentin... and post the results!

**Owain**

Enchanted Blue, Ice Blue then Skull White highlights, and then hit it with a dark blue wash.

**Gitsplitta**

O.K. Follow-up question. What color should the plasma core be when the gun is "off"? (holstered or something).

**micahaphone**

Testor's glossy green, w/ black over the rest and silver/ gold for the "barrel" section on the end, with gold for the sergeants.

**Gitsplitta**

O.K. guys, first experiment... a re-paint of a plasma pistol. One of my son's figs.

First close-up of the pistol itself. Ice blue with an asurman blue wash. I tried for the white highlights but they just ended up as smears, so I re-washed over them. Still, I think it looks pretty good.

Secondly, plasma effects. With the silver colored marine, I opted to do a faint glow by mixing electric blue with chainmail in two shades, and painted the facing armor surfaces. The eagle was touched up with electric blue mixed with burnished gold. It's a subtle effect... but I like it.

**Corennus**

NEVER ever thought of having the plasma pistol casting a glow over the marine! Very good!

One thing though, and you'll hear it from people TIME and TIME again.

Thin your paints down. Right now the model's looking a little bit gloopy. But still cool

**Gitsplitta**

Yep... your right, I'll work on that. Still, being painted by a 9-year-old I thought he did pretty good. Most of his figures are hand-me-downs so their old or worn out re-re-paints of older figs. Guess I'll have to figure out how to strip figs before we paint them (have researched it... just been lazy). That and working on thinning the paint should help considerably.

I did buy some new plasma pistols and plasma guns... so I'll fiddle with some of those & see what a "new" paint job looks like.

**Corennus**

that was by a 9yo? I'm very impressed!

And easiest way is the old spray can of white paint.
I always use white as an undercoat as you can't see the detail with black.

**Million**

Here's my attempt at yellow plasma with OSL

**Breotan**

I'm going to suggest that your "glow" effect is a little heavy handed and could benefit from toning down a bit. A quick way is to take a very drybrush of the basecoat and go over the glow effect. You don't want to cover the glow, just mute it a little, especially at the edges.

**Gitsplitta**

Breotan, are you talking to one of us, or both? No objections either way, but at tabletop distance if I get any more subtle I don't think you'd even notice the effect.

I also tried to keep in mind that the reflection will not be as intense as the actual plasma core... though I could see a fine line along a highly reflective edge... otherwise I went for a softer, more ambient glow.

At least that was what I was shooting for... looking at the photo I might have still been a bit too heavy handed in places. Hmmm.

**Million**

Yeah, i'll admit I was pretty heavy handed - was my first go!

**Mattlov**

Over accentuating isn't really a bad thing. Let's face it, 40K is pretty over the top in general, a little harsh detail only makes it MOAR GRIMDARK.

**Finch Claw**

I'll defiantly do this to my templars.

**JSK-Fox**

I make mine either red or blue.
I hate it when they're greyish though. It just makes me unhappy.

**Karmine**

I personally like red plama. Looks really good. And, yes, it doesn't make me sad.

**Samus_aran115**

Basecoat of dark angels green, overcoat of goblin green, highlights with scorpions green

**Ailaros**

So, obviously having the gun glow is awesome visually, but I don't like it, personally. The thing is, that ribbety thing on the top is the heat sink. The only way that it would glow like that is if the shooter is suffering from "Gets Hot!". As such, were I to use the GW models, I'd paint it the way they do: boltgun metal.

Now, that said, when I did some scratchbuilding of my plasma guns, I was tempted to add some glow because they looked like guns that held onto plasma and just let some go, rather than a gun that generated new plasma every time you pulled the trigger. So unless you're going for this effect...

... then you're going to have to justify the otherwise awesome visual effect.

**The Dreadnote**

Actually it's the magnetic coil which allows the gun to fire. But to hell with fluff - it's a sci-fi deathray, it'll glow if I damn well want it to

**JSK-Fox**

Truth.