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I always just use the same cyan-tinged blue I normally do. Contrasts with both my armies and is a colour I find attractive.

I think we all seem to agree that on some level, cool colors (blues/greens/purple) for Loyalists and warm colors (reds/orange/pink) for Chaos and some level of color contrast to you paint scheme.

So for a Salamander, you are more likely to use blue, but an Ultramarine would use green.

For Chaos it is easier since Orange is a less used armour color, and it looks for "fiery".

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I paint my plasmagun coils silver, and my power weapons silver with a very thin metallic blue edge to the blade.

Meltaguns are silver and fade to bronze at the end of the barrel [not quite fade, it's more like the end of the barrel is bronze and then there are streaks heading back towards the base].

Force weapons are gold.


My Scourge [DZC] plasma cannon coils are dark red-copper colored.

I think my general rule of thumb is to make sure the weapon is identifiable during game play. I do choose a colour I like, but I try to make special weapons (and power weapons, etc.) stick out a bit.


A simple example...at a glance it's very obvious who has a power sword, and a lightning claw.


Another example - while not exceedingly bright, this makes the plasma guns stick out, and easy to see on the table.

I’d say it’s generally blue, but I think it should be painted in contrasting colors to the model carrying it.

Damn Mandella effect - I always thought GW did it’s plasma (light) blue. That is, at least, the color I use so I can always pick it out (and gold tips for melta).

I’ve always done Blue for loyal, red for heretic, green for Xeno equivalents

 SkavenLord wrote:
Mainly been going with sky blue and white highlights. Seems to contrast rather well with darker Salamander armor.

w1zard wrote:
I always thought the coils on the plasma guns were supposed to be like a really advanced heatsink for convection cooling. If that is the case, the strictly realistic color would be red/orange to white in the case of an extremely hot heatsink.

If another poster was correct and it emits cherenkov radiation, the strictly realistic color would be a light blue.

That would be a pretty cool idea. How do you manage to make it that colour without having it clash with the rest of the model?

You don't. It is supposed to clash with the rest of the model.

Same rule I have for power weapons. Whatever colour contrasts with the army scheme.

My SW ones are dark green (same colour as he runestones on them). My DG ones are yellow, with the same glow being used on their eyes too from Vallejo yellow green. My Tau ones are a cool blue (to compliment their Iron Man colour scheme).

 Groslon wrote:
Blue!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation

Im going to second this. Also we always associate radiation with green glow when in facts its blue! Plus the color blue is much hotter on the spectrum, which is why blue and white stars are much hotter than red and orange ones. AND they always describe plasma as being as hot as a star, so blue-ish white it is!

I painted my first plasma cannon yellow, with some of the auric armor gold on their to make it shiny. It doesn't look like your typical plasma cannon, but it looks good enough. I have never built another one.

I'm not sure how it fits with official fluff, but I assume that races able to make and maintain this kinda tech are able to alter the colour of it, tuning the weapon a little different, or using different materials or fuel.

Edit: I think I agree with what seems to be the general consensus that as long as its easily identified its OK.

 Groslon wrote:
Blue!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation

Correct because Science!

via Imgflip Meme Generator

I go with orange for plasma which I call Hellfire Neon that is collected within the warp to recharge weapon cells. For my fancier power weapons I like to go with an ethereal pale green trying to give the weapon a sort of ghostly look to it. I like to think the power aspect of the weapon is literally trying to rend the soul from the victim's body as the physical blade tears apart their body. My Chaos army destroy their enemies body and soul when they fight.

Traitor legions use a older version of plama weaponry, more that fires at greater power but is more prone to overheating.

That is (fluffwise) why chaos plasma tend to be painted with a hellfire red instead of the imperium's cooler blue.

nareik wrote:
Traitor legions use a older version of plama weaponry, more that fires at greater power but is more prone to overheating.

That is (fluffwise) why chaos plasma tend to be painted with a hellfire red instead of the imperium's cooler blue.

Except things that are blue are warmer than things that are red.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:

nareik wrote:
Traitor legions use a older version of plama weaponry, more that fires at greater power but is more prone to overheating.

That is (fluffwise) why chaos plasma tend to be painted with a hellfire red instead of the imperium's cooler blue.

Except things that are blue are warmer than things that are red.

Exactly!

The chaos cooling coils are not so good at removing heat from the core of the weapon, which is why they are red instead of blue and why the weapon overheats.

The imperium coils can get hotter, allowing them to radiate excess heat instead of leaving it trapped in the weapon.

For literally every army I have that has plasma, I do the main body of the gun black with metallic highlights and the "head" ( man that sounds phallic) red.

w1zard wrote:
If another poster was correct and it emits cherenkov radiation, the strictly realistic color would be a light blue.

It would be realistic if plasma gun A) had a slab of plutonium inside, B) was underwater

Anyway, I agree, metallic for me, glow of any sort is IMO silly as modern windings are so tightly woven (in dozens of layers at that) that no inside light would ever come, unless the gun was in the process of exploding. Ditto for suggestions coils glow because they are hot, if it was the case the user's lungs would turn extra-crispy in seconds. Metal glows red at 900-1000 degrees, it's actually hot enough to make everything combustible withing several meters to instantly burst into flames.

 Irbis wrote:
Metal glows red at 900-1000 degrees, it's actually hot enough to make everything combustible withing several meters to instantly burst into flames.

Ugh, no. You are wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7jI0XvV7Fo

According to you this guy would be dead and his house would be on fire.

 Irbis wrote:

It would be realistic if plasma gun A) had a slab of plutonium inside, B) was underwater

According to the wikipedia page for cherenkov radiation it is any dialectric medium, not just water.

"In a similar way, a charged particle can generate a light shock wave as it travels through an insulator."

Plutonium is also not a necessary element to generating cherenkov radiation, any nuclear fuel source can.

Yeah, People with electric stovetops will tell you that their red-glowing coils don't combust their countertops.

I like mine to be white with faint blue highlights.

 Irbis wrote:
Ditto for suggestions coils glow because they are hot, if it was the case the user's lungs would turn extra-crispy in seconds. Metal glows red at 900-1000 degrees, it's actually hot enough to make everything combustible withing several meters to instantly burst into flames.

I have a new respect for blacksmiths since I never knew that they caught fire as they worked.

I also didn't realize how dangerous incandescent lightbulbs are. If that vacuum vessel was compromised, instant death for everyone in the room. Scary.




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 cuda1179 wrote:
Yeah, People with electric stovetops will tell you that their red-glowing coils don't combust their countertops.

Glowing stove coils? Emperor's teeth, you're dancing with death!

 Nightlord1987 wrote:
Blue for Loyalists, Orange for Chaos.

Nope. Blue for Loyalists, Red for Chaos. The same goes for power weapons. It´s a Star Wars reference.

My Death Guard have orange plasma weapons.