Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Several of my IG Infantry Squad Sergeants have simple swords as CC weapons. For aesthetic reasons only, I would like to paint them blue, highlight them, apply a glaze, and dry brush luminescence on the surrounding area. I believe this, unintentionally, will make them look similar to power swords. So, I was wondering:

Would this be confused as a power weapon?

If so, and I explain its not a power weapon to my opponent, would it be against WYSIWYG?

If technically legal, do you think it would annoy any opponents (or you, if I was playing against you)?

Thanks! And sorry if a silly question.

As long as you explain to your opponent what they are actually holding, you could have them swinging Hello Kitty by its tail. I don't know if anywhere it officially states "power weapons are blue" and "normal CC weapons have to be dull". The rule of cool prevails! It shouldn't annoy opponents if you explain it and don't try to trick them. Hell, I think it would be pretty sweet.

You should probably paint up a bit of sprue or a test model to show exactly what you're going for.

To me yes it would look like a power weapon, and could be confusing. It'd ESPECIALLY be confusing if you ACTUALLY have any power weapons in your army (even if painted in a different color). It could be against WYSIWYG depending on what they looked like, and it'd be up to the people you are playing with as to whether it would annoy them. On here it'd annoy some and wouldn't annoy others.

The power weapon aesthetic is really cool. And who says all power weapons have to be armor cutting lightsabers? I'd be happy with an energy field that just cleans the blood off a sword. And that's your fluff excuse for having the blue steel.

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
The power weapon aesthetic is really cool. And who says all power weapons have to be armor cutting lightsabers? I'd be happy with an energy field that just cleans the blood off a sword. And that's your fluff excuse for having the blue steel.

Actually most power weapons aren't glowing, only some power swords. Power fists, techpriest power axes etc., and I've also seen most DE/Harlequin power swords painted up as regular swords. Of course many choose to paint these glowing, especially power fists, but inherently there is no glow and the only real telltale sign of a power weapon tends to be the cabling going into it.

Personally I have no problem with how people model their units, I always bring a hard copy of my own list and I tend to take note of how the enemy is equipped before the battle, and then ask my opponent later if something is unclear. I've never had a problem with things not being WYSIWYG and once I got into the online warhammer communities I was surprised at how much weight some put on it.
Although I only play friendly games with a small group of people, those who regularly play pick-up games might prefer more WYSIWYG.

*shrug*. I paint some of my non-power weapon swords blue. I mean, it could be blue metal, too, right? I mean, who says that in 38,000 years, swords need to look like they do now

I don't think it's a big deal as long as your opponent can tell what you want them to be. Like, if half your squads are with power weapons and half aren't, but they all look the same, that has a practical issue

My opinion, do them blue, its your models, I would just consider what you intend to make your powerweapon primary colour. To paint all the weapons in blue and lightning effect on your powerweapons but still blue will get annoying. But....if you went for a contrasting colour like yellow or red for "your" powerweapons I don't see why not. Just my opinion.

Yep...done some of me chainswords blue as well...looks gooooood!
On me chaos and IG stuff.

WYSIWYG does not pertain to how you paint your things but which models or modelparts you use.

Nobody is going to be mad if you say "this model isn't as good at it looks."
I quite frequently say, "This sergeant has a sculpted plasma pistol, but I didn't pay for it, so it's not being used."
Nobody gets mad that it's being used at stock value rather than upgraded.

People dislike hidden surprises, not ones where you essentially forget to use a visible element.

Glowing lightsaber blades on Power weapons are a recent phenomenon, came in alongside GK 5th Ed. Look at the SM 5th ed codex, all the power weapons were simple metal blades, bar 1 held by a Salamander captain which had a purple crystal design. After GK though everyone and their dog had the glowing blue.

I think the blue aesthetic would be really cool! It's certainly different.

- It wouldn't be confusing if you notified your opponent that despite the look, they aren't power weapons.
- Painting something a different color does not effect WYSIWYG in any way. Adding/removing actual model bits does and anyone who says different should look up what WYSIWYG means.
- It wouldn't annoy me in the slightest, in fact, I'd probably steal the idea for my own mini's.

Glowing blue power weapons have a pretty long history, I know I painted some of my stuff blue as far back as 3rd edition.

Chainswords, if modeled as such, are not power weapons, but CCW. Power weapon models are usually smooth edged weapons, often with a few power conduits running down them. However, plenty of people use the power weapon bits, painted metallic, as basic CCWs. So painting a CCW like a PW shouldn't be a huge deal.

Bah, any colour you like.
Just avoid anything that would look like light effects.
Edge highlighting is normal, I usually have some kind of light to dark gradient or lightening drawn into the blade for a power weapon.
WYSIWYG is also helped with consistency.
Just ensure anywhere you actually have a power weapon you can see a real difference.

If you lay down your army and say, "These are all normal CC weapons, not power weapons" and somebody gets confused, then... well...


Ghidorah

As long as I can tell what's a power weapon and what's not at a glance then it should be fine. If you have multiple squads with blue glowing blades but only like 2/4 of them are actually power weapons, I'm gonna have to slap you for making me do extra brain work to figure out who's who.

EDIT: Also, if that is the case, always let your opponent do a "redo" if they end up charging something they thought was wielding a close combat weapon but was actually a power weapon. It's a common courtesy and would leave a bad taste in people's mouths if you intentionally used the confusion to make people make such mistakes.