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I came up with the idea for a diorama involving a space marine firing a meltagun. We were having a discussion about what melta fire actually looks like. And that got me thinking: what do the various futuristic weapons look like when fired?

This is how I always pictured it:
Laser fire (Lascannons, lasguns, etc...)- a concentrated beam, that comes out almost like a long solid cylinder. Color:probably red, or a dark yellow
Melta fire- I imagined it a bit like a fire hose: something that is barely solid, held together solely by the force it is ejected with. Therefore, melta fire would have a bit of "over spray", so that you have little particles of melta flinging off, or dripping from the beam itself. Color: bright orange, possibly yellow.
Plasma fire- a concentrated beam, similar to laser fire. However, plasma fire looks similar to the lightsabers in the original star wars: more focused toward the center, with a lightening toward the edges (where the plasma is breaking down somewhat). Color: blue. It can't be anything else.

What are your feelings? Any one else have a differing mental image than me?

Watch some videos about the DOW series. or just buy the games, because they're please do not try to get around the word filter awesome.

You're right about laser fire. Sometimes, though, they're blue. With lascannons, the beam is so powerful that it stays in the air for a second or two after firing. As if the light had literally been printed on your retina.

Melta fire is weird. It is hard to describe it. It is some kind of a continuous beam that is blueish near the cannon and becomes yellow then white when it approaches the target. Seems to be a highly unprecise weapon, the beam keeps changing direction. Seems to have a very limited range too. It sticks to the fluff about the weapon actually.

Plasma fire is not exactly a beam. A plasma weapon will throw a ball of bright blue light at the target. The bigger the weapon, the bigger the light and the ball. When the "plasma ball" hits a target, it explodes in a big blue sphere.

According to fluff (Caiphas Cain books, Gaunts Ghosts books, Eisenhorn books):

Lasguns - brief blinding white bolt, sometimes tinged red
Lascannons - blue beam like an arc welder
Plasma - red beam like a laser, but wider
Melta - flashbulb effect, too bright to really see

Laodamia wrote:Watch some videos about the DOW series. or just buy the games, because they're f***ing awesome.

You're right about laser fire. Sometimes, though, they're blue. With lascannons, the beam is so powerful that it stays in the air for a second or two after firing. As if the light had literally been printed on your retina.

Melta fire is weird. It is hard to describe it. It is some kind of a continuous beam that is blueish near the cannon and becomes yellow then white when it approaches the target. Seems to be a highly unprecise weapon, the beam keeps changing direction. Seems to have a very limited range too. It sticks to the fluff about the weapon actually.

Plasma fire is not exactly a beam. A plasma weapon will throw a ball of bright blue light at the target. The bigger the weapon, the bigger the light and the ball. When the "plasma ball" hits a target, it explodes in a big blue sphere.

The meltagun changing direction in DoW is because the commander is shooting it multiple times, not because it is going all over the place.

purplefood wrote:

Laodamia wrote:Watch some videos about the DOW series. or just buy the games, because they're f***ing awesome.

You're right about laser fire. Sometimes, though, they're blue. With lascannons, the beam is so powerful that it stays in the air for a second or two after firing. As if the light had literally been printed on your retina.

Melta fire is weird. It is hard to describe it. It is some kind of a continuous beam that is blueish near the cannon and becomes yellow then white when it approaches the target. Seems to be a highly unprecise weapon, the beam keeps changing direction. Seems to have a very limited range too. It sticks to the fluff about the weapon actually.

Plasma fire is not exactly a beam. A plasma weapon will throw a ball of bright blue light at the target. The bigger the weapon, the bigger the light and the ball. When the "plasma ball" hits a target, it explodes in a big blue sphere.

The meltagun changing direction in DoW is because the commander is shooting it multiple times, not because it is going all over the place.

For the mealtagun, yes. But in DOW II Chaos Rising, I equipped my dread with a multi melta and his aim was just horrible. He kept shooting at everything in front of him except for the ennemy CSM. And it was not because he shot multiple times, it was a continuous beam. It worked well against groups of ennemies though. The dread literally burned 50 square meters each time he triggered his multi melta.

Laodamia wrote:

purplefood wrote:

Laodamia wrote:Watch some videos about the DOW series. or just buy the games, because they're f***ing awesome.

You're right about laser fire. Sometimes, though, they're blue. With lascannons, the beam is so powerful that it stays in the air for a second or two after firing. As if the light had literally been printed on your retina.

Melta fire is weird. It is hard to describe it. It is some kind of a continuous beam that is blueish near the cannon and becomes yellow then white when it approaches the target. Seems to be a highly unprecise weapon, the beam keeps changing direction. Seems to have a very limited range too. It sticks to the fluff about the weapon actually.

Plasma fire is not exactly a beam. A plasma weapon will throw a ball of bright blue light at the target. The bigger the weapon, the bigger the light and the ball. When the "plasma ball" hits a target, it explodes in a big blue sphere.

The meltagun changing direction in DoW is because the commander is shooting it multiple times, not because it is going all over the place.

For the mealtagun, yes. But in DOW II Chaos Rising, I equipped my dread with a multi melta and his aim was just horrible. He kept shooting at everything in front of him except for the ennemy CSM. And it was not because he shot multiple times, it was a continuous beam. It worked well against groups of ennemies though. The dread literally burned 50 square meters each time he triggered his multi melta.

Its a game , there not always correct. It's probaly a White Beam of energy.

Dawn of War 2 has all the above weapons. Melta guns are a bit more common with the new expansion that introduces the Imperial Guard. Generally plasma shoots balls of flame and meltas shoot a thick whitish beam.

I imagine melta fire would look like this but more focussed:



Hope this helps

PS Please post some pictures of your diorama.

Just outa curiosity why do plasma guns "have to be blue"? There not allowed to be any other color? Or is there some fluff you have read that states it is blue?

I always imagined it was green...

I always imagined plasma guns shot balls of plasma that exploded/melted what it hit.
Melta guns fired an invisible beam that melted what it hit but when it hit it was really really bright.
Lasguns beams can go from red to blue... i think it depends on the pattern and the setting of the lasgun.

yournamehere wrote:Just outa curiosity why do plasma guns "have to be blue"? There not allowed to be any other color? Or is there some fluff you have read that states it is blue?

I always imagined it was green...

Because blue is the brightest color in the visible light spectrum, green is in the middle, and plasma is as bright as the sun. It should actually be more purple than blue though.

I've always imagined melta fire based off the description in the wargear book- inviisible but for heat distortion in the air, and then a dull roaring noise when it hits an an enemy vehicle, as the metal heats up and melts obviously that would make a glow.
Lasguns I always imagined as coloured laser beams a la Star Wars, lascannons just a bigger version. Imperial and Tau plasma blue, ork plasma green, and chaos plasma purple or red. Just because I think that would look the coolest. Power weapons I generally imagine as blue, but I sometimes paint mine green if I think it'll look better.

Strictly speaking, as lasguns are firing lasers, they'd be invisible except when you were getting shot directly in the eyes or as you were viewing it impact, much like a laser pointer. However, if you have too much grimdark in your atmosphere and it were to cause the light to become visible (like a laser pointer through a smokescreen) then I would imagine a yellow or red would be sufficient.

For what it's worth, Class 4 lasers today (the ones that can cut through metal) are invisible.

Oh well if we're going to bring SCIENCE into it, sure.
But science isn't very Grimdark. (I like the idea of Grimdark as a gas.)

blood reaper wrote:Its a game , there not always correct. It's probaly a White Beam of energy.

I think it must be correct. At least fluff-wise.

The DOW game series were sold in the millions. I'm pretty sure GW paid a very close attention to the accuracy of everything they put in the game and gave Relic and THQ very precise guidelines. I don't understand why it should be considered of lesser fluff value than the actual tabletop game.

And yes, it is definitely a roughly whiteish beam of energy in the DOW series.

Laodamia wrote:

blood reaper wrote:Its a game , there not always correct. It's probaly a White Beam of energy.

I think it must be correct. At least fluff-wise.

The DOW game series were sold in the millions. I'm pretty sure GW paid a very close attention to the accuracy of everything they put in the game and gave Relic and THQ very precise guidelines. I don't understand why it should be considered of lesser fluff value than the actual tabletop game.

And yes, it is definitely a roughly whiteish beam of energy in the DOW series.

GW just about manage to pay attention to their own stuff and even then things slip through the net.
It's considered lesser fluff value because its a game and has to compromise on certain parts either for the story or gameplay balance.

Laodamia wrote:

blood reaper wrote:Its a game , there not always correct. It's probaly a White Beam of energy.

I think it must be correct. At least fluff-wise.

The DOW game series were sold in the millions. I'm pretty sure GW paid a very close attention to the accuracy of everything they put in the game and gave Relic and THQ very precise guidelines. I don't understand why it should be considered of lesser fluff value than the actual tabletop game.

And yes, it is definitely a roughly whiteish beam of energy in the DOW series.

Yes. And the Alpha Legion acting like World Eaters , Chaos Sorcerers of Khorne , Metal Boxes , Daemons of Tzeentch being used by Khornate Marines , Firaeveus Carron and the other reject Characters spawned by the series. GW did not give them Precise guid lines.

At least we got Eliphas, who is al least somewhat awesome.

Back on topic, I tend to see Flamers and other weapons as flashy as possible.

Always viewed:

Lasguns - Different colors of beams per pattern type, settings, and individual nature of forge worlds. white, red, blue, or even purple (like Sam Jacksons character in Star Wars.) I think the color idication here is really just so that you can see if your target did what it was supposed to do. It does no one any good if you cant directly see the affect of what you fired. Like food coloring in jello, it just makes things more fun.

Lascannon - Same idea but less varied as the above.

Melta Gun - In my head I like to think of a melta substance as lava pouring out in a gout of destruction although all fluff points to it being a visible whitish beam with the same effect as a portable microwave. Less cool in my opinion then Lava!

Plasma - A basketball sized ball of blue-purplish liquid fire. Ka-boom!

daedalus wrote:Strictly speaking, as lasguns are firing lasers, they'd be invisible except when you were getting shot directly in the eyes or as you were viewing it impact,

And strictly speaking, lasguns do not fire lasers.

They're like blasters from Star Wars.

daedalus wrote:Strictly speaking, as lasguns are firing lasers, they'd be invisible except when you were getting shot directly in the eyes or as you were viewing it impact, much like a laser pointer. However, if you have too much grimdark in your atmosphere and it were to cause the light to become visible (like a laser pointer through a smokescreen) then I would imagine a yellow or red would be sufficient.

For what it's worth, Class 4 lasers today (the ones that can cut through metal) are invisible.

your actually wrong.

lasguns are NOT laser weapons as in, they use a Laser to inflict heat damage.


lasguns use a laser to create a Plasma Pulse from an agitated gas in a specilized chamber. the Pulse is then projected down a laser beam to the target. because of the intense heat, a back pressure is created in the gun resulting in "kick"

Plasma Weapon create and store plasma in their Magnetic chambers. when fired, a small chunk of plasma is isolated and allowed to escape down a magnetic tunnel, out the barrel, and into the target.

because the Plasma and lasguns actually are lobbing Plasma bolts they are visable for a short period of time(mostly as an after image on your retina)


Meltaguns actually don't have a color. they are invisible. what happens is that the superheated beam of energy creates a heat haze in the air the beam passes through with some of the air being turned into plasma(and emmiting light). this distortion allows you to "See" the beam. similer to those low powered laser pointers. you can see the beam in fog, but not in normal air without particles.

blood reaper wrote:

Laodamia wrote:

blood reaper wrote:Its a game , there not always correct. It's probaly a White Beam of energy.

I think it must be correct. At least fluff-wise.

The DOW game series were sold in the millions. I'm pretty sure GW paid a very close attention to the accuracy of everything they put in the game and gave Relic and THQ very precise guidelines. I don't understand why it should be considered of lesser fluff value than the actual tabletop game.

And yes, it is definitely a roughly whiteish beam of energy in the DOW series.

Yes. And the Alpha Legion acting like World Eaters , Chaos Sorcerers of Khorne , Metal Boxes , Daemons of Tzeentch being used by Khornate Marines , Firaeveus Carron and the other reject Characters spawned by the series. GW did not give them Precise guid lines.

...you got me.
But the game is still awesome.

It mentions in the Ultramarines novels somewhere that melta guns are microwave based. I guess if they are the beam itself would be invisible, but with a massive greeny plasma flash flash as it connects with metal.

Something like this but concentrated and massive, with globs of molten metal flying everywhere as the metal vapourises.


Incidentally if they were microwave based they would also be horrific against troops, capable of blinding them from massive distances as well as the more obvious effects of severely burning them as well as cooking off all their grenades and ammo.

blood reaper wrote:
Yes. And the Alpha Legion acting like World Eaters , Chaos Sorcerers of Khorne , Metal Boxes , Daemons of Tzeentch being used by Khornate Marines , Firaeveus Carron and the other reject Characters spawned by the series. GW did not give them Precise guid lines.

Well, to be even more specific, after they brought in the earliest version to GW, and it was a mostly direct simulation of the table-top game, GW told them they should make it a good video game rather than a copy of the regular game. Even if that meant there were inconsistencies.

DarknessEternal wrote:

blood reaper wrote:
Yes. And the Alpha Legion acting like World Eaters , Chaos Sorcerers of Khorne , Metal Boxes , Daemons of Tzeentch being used by Khornate Marines , Firaeveus Carron and the other reject Characters spawned by the series. GW did not give them Precise guid lines.

Well, to be even more specific, after they brought in the earliest version to GW, and it was a mostly direct simulation of the table-top game, GW told them they should make it a good video game rather than a copy of the regular game. Even if that meant there were inconsistencies.

I must addmit DOW wasnt that bad , even with its mistakes. GW probaly dont care whats in it just if it sell's.

I always kind of envisioned lasguns like this:

Lascannons I don't really have a concise image of in my mind. The laser pointer analogy makes the most sense to me, but it's awfully boring. I'm stuck somewhere between Star Wars laser cannons and the Spartan laser from Halo.

Plasma I basically see as fast moving balls of white-hot fury tinged with the color of your choice.

Melta as an invisible cylindrical heat distortion build-up that quickly flashes hot enough to burn an image into retinas/cameras/etc.

it has been suggested that Melta weapons should be able to be fired as a template weapon.


it could be argued that Melta weapons need to concentrate their beams to be effective against vehicles. these concentrated beams arn't effective against troops for the same reason that a lascannon isn't. that one guy is very, veeery, dead, but the rest are very much alive.

Las cannons wouldnt have invisible beams, since the beam is hot enough to pierce armor it would be very visible,and would probably blind you if you are too close. Even some laser pointers have a visible beam (unfortunately they cost like $500)

Razgryz wrote:According to fluff (Caiphas Cain books, Gaunts Ghosts books, Eisenhorn books):

Lasguns - brief blinding white bolt, sometimes tinged red
Lascannons - blue beam like an arc welder
Plasma - red beam like a laser, but wider
Melta - flashbulb effect, too bright to really see

According to other fluff

Lasguns are ruby red lasers, perfectly symbolized in dow.
Plasma is a blue ball of molten somethingorother.
Melta is pretty much dow:fok. Orange particle like firehose effect. It surpasses being "hot" and simply destroys atoms.

DarknessEternal wrote:

daedalus wrote:Strictly speaking, as lasguns are firing lasers, they'd be invisible except when you were getting shot directly in the eyes or as you were viewing it impact,

And strictly speaking, lasguns do not fire lasers.

They're like blasters from Star Wars.

"The lasgun is an energy based weapon, and is the most common and widely used type of laser weapon in the Imperium."
Following the link to laser weapon (under the "Workings" section):
"Laser weapons emit a highly focused beam of light."

Dictionary.com's definition of "Laser": a device that produces a nearly parallel, nearly monochromatic, and coherent beam of light by exciting atoms to a higher energy level and causing them to radiate their energy in phase.

If lexicanum is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Grey Templar wrote:your actually wrong.

lasguns are NOT laser weapons as in, they use a Laser to inflict heat damage.

lasguns use a laser to create a Plasma Pulse from an agitated gas in a specilized chamber. the Pulse is then projected down a laser beam to the target. because of the intense heat, a back pressure is created in the gun resulting in "kick"

Interesting. I've not seen anything supporting that, but I suppose I can't refute the idea of a beam consisting of laser+psuedoscience as this IS a sci-fi setting after all.