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Just a quick query...

What colour do you all think plasma should be?
The most common that I've seen is blue/white, which makes sense physics-wise. But has anyone got any better ideas?

I'm just curious to see if anyone has done anything completely fantastic plasma-related, essentially.

Please post pics, if you don't mind, or at least link to pics if you've got some cool plasma-wielding models.

Well can just work with the palette you're already using for the rest of the model. Blue on Ultramarines with OSL mightn't work as well as a green.

What colour do you prefer?

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=461404

Go with GI Joe colors. Red for good guys, blue for bad guys.

Nice science bomb Flinty ; )

Ooh, I love the scince bomb, Flinty

I was doing some reading, and according to 40k lore, plasma guns are powered by pressurized liquid hydrogen cells, so going off of that chart, pink is the colour of choice. Which could work quite nicely - my guys have a blue/grey colour scheme, so that will contrast nicely.

If that's the case then, how would I go about it? I primarily use GW paints, but I'm open to branching out if anyone thinks it's necessary.

The same way you'd paint anything else really, just with more highlights I'd imagine. It's how I do mine. I'm too scared to try object source lighting yet, I don't want to mess up all the previous work on a figure!

This guy was one of the first I painted when I got back into the hobby after 10+ year hiatus. My plasma could definitely use some more highlighting now that I look at it.

I find the easiest way to paint plasma coils is, white basecoat, blue ink or wash, then highlight or drybrush white. Obviously you can use any colour ink/wash you like, I just prefer blue. As for the inks themselves, I use artists drawing or calligraphy inks fron a local art suppliers, as they are cheaper. Water based inks also "bleed through" thinned paint. Giving some pretty interesting paint effects. The bleed can be stopped with a light coat of sealant if required.

Blue is the most common color, from what I've seen, with green coming in second. Personally, I'd just consider plasma coils to be nondescript "glowy bits" and pick whatever color best suited the general scheme.

My only advice is to pick a color that DOES NOT clash with the main colors already on the model.

This isn't a game about physics, if you want to do green, or orange, or purple, because that would look better with your model, then go for it.

Like Super Newb said pick a color that contrasts your main paint scheme so that it stands out while at the same time complementing it.

For example my IG's paint scheme is red and black so I chose green for my plasmaguns.


Sorry for the bad picture but it is what I have at the moment.

I just paint mine as metallic coils (inductors).

The way I see it, If they are glowing, way too much energy is being wasted as heat (the glow) and light instead of being spat out the end.

Sure, it might signify the "blows up a lot" nature of the weapons in this game, but it's one of the more rampant silliness things I ignore from the fluff.

But I used to work in a ceramics factory with induction kilns.

Any color that marks it as being uncommon to other weapons as long as it doesnt clash with the model should work fine. Kinda the wrong game to worry about "realism" isnt 't it? Lol

I've seen a huge variety of colours used, most commonly blue, green and red (on chaos). A nice light blue would work well and is how I do it, but it would depend on how it would contrast with your army colours.

I like pink myself, it has a very nice contrast with most IG colour schemes and nobody else seems to use it