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.

Hey guys,

I have run in to a small dilemma. I am not sure what color to make my power weapons for my various Dark Angels models. I have been looking around and it seems that blue, usually with some streaks of lightning, is the most common. However, I have always been one for trying out some alternatives to just set my models a little bit apart from everyone else. I am currentlydebating between the classic blue, a red color, green color, or a purple/black color. Regardless, I want them to be relatively dark in scheme, possibly even metallic and then have the lighting coursing over it, similar to this:




I am not sure how to totally achieve that look of a "power field" over a metallic surface. I would like to tray and avoid the lighting if possible, but it may be unavoidable to get the image across. If anyone can offer some advice that would be helpful. Here are my reasons behind the different colors, let me know which you think is going to look best based on my models.

Blue - Standard color and seems to go well with almost every scheme. Classic power weapon look.

Red - Aggressive, and has that sort of "old school" feeling to it when GW gave everyone red weapons. Matches the eyes of all DA models, and can be very menacing. However, I am afraid it might be too bright against white deathwing, green marines, and black ravenwing bikers.

Green - Compliments the DA scheme very well, but many already have green icons etc. Might look too decorative. On green marines, it will just be too much green perhaps?

Purple - I want to try something new and unique. Generally, pruple is a more "chaos" color, but it constrasts with green and black ravenwing or white Deathwing will not clash with it. Also, gives a very dark and "spacey" look.

Main weapons are going to be numerous Thunder Hammers and swords on a variety of models. There will also be one power maul / staff.

Any opinions? Also, if anyone has advice on how to paint them or examples of some of these color schemes in real life that would be appreciated. I have already googled and searched the galleries, but if there are any special stand outs that would be excellent. Thanks!

- VardenV2

Like this, but with any colours you like




If youve done red boltgun casing with the DA scheme, them red swords would look good but tricky to not get pink looking :/

I'd be more likely to pick a complimentary colour to the rest of your Dark Angels.

I'd be inclined to say a red, orange colour as it would complement the green. But it depends upon your other spot colours.

Do you have a picture of one of your painted models?

I'm with Winter. Red or orange all the way. If you look at a colour wheel the opposite colours will always compliment. If you can try dropping a bit of purple in with the red and orange and you will have nailed it.

As you said blue is the colour used all over the place and could actually make your models look a little generic.

Purple is predominantly chaos. But if used as a low light to the red and orange it will make the red stand out a little more.

Blue stuff = good guy energy weapons.
Red stuff = bad guy energy weapons.

As far as painting power weapons with crackling lightning, one pretty easy (if somewhat time consuming) method is to lay down the basecoat in the color of your choice.
Put down somewhat thin lines in a lighter version of the basecoat color, then thinner jagged white lines inside them for your base lightning field.
Varnish it up with some brush-on gloss coating, lay it on pretty thick. Apply a glaze that compliments the basecoat once that dries. (blue glaze for blue basecoat, etc)
Now do some more lightning bolts perpendicular to the others, a slightly less vibrant color than the ones underneath. Voila, crackling lightning energy field.

 VardenV2 wrote:
Blue - Standard color and seems to go well with almost every scheme. Classic power weapon look.

Red - Aggressive, and has that sort of "old school" feeling to it when GW gave everyone red weapons. Matches the eyes of all DA models, and can be very menacing. However, I am afraid it might be too bright against white deathwing, green marines, and black ravenwing bikers.

Green - Compliments the DA scheme very well, but many already have green icons etc. Might look too decorative. On green marines, it will just be too much green perhaps?

Purple - I want to try something new and unique. Generally, pruple is a more "chaos" color, but it constrasts with green and black ravenwing or white Deathwing will not clash with it. Also, gives a very dark and "spacey" look

Rougly, I'd say red "burning/lava" or blue for greenwing models, green for DW, purple or purple-to-orangish for RW, but this is because I like - on DAs - a sort of 'custom-look' for powered weapons (whereas on my gk I'll try and be more uniform)

Red or Purple, especially if you use the video above as guidance I used these colours (and the video) for the power weapons on my IF and WE.

I used purple to do my librarians' force weapons and it got a good reception from people on here.



My regular power weapons are similar, but start at very dark blue. Can't say I've ever really associated purple ones with Chaos and they would really stand out against DA green, so I say go for it.

 gianlucafiorentini123 wrote:
Red or Purple, especially if you use the video above as guidance I used these colours (and the video) for the power weapons on my IF and WE.

The second pic, power sword, colours, or gw equivelent, how you did it, NOW!!
*stares at you*

This is how I've painted mine. I've done it in small scale as well but it's very trying on the nerves and requires an airbrush if you can't blend paint (which I cannot do) I have a tutorial somewhere on here if you would like it. I like standard blue personally.

I don't know about you, but i did mine a very light blue with dark blue ripples on them, look good to me

 the shrouded lord wrote:

 gianlucafiorentini123 wrote:
Red or Purple, especially if you use the video above as guidance I used these colours (and the video) for the power weapons on my IF and WE.

The second pic, power sword, colours, or gw equivelent, how you did it, NOW!!
*stares at you*

White, Sunburst yellow, Blazing Orange and then Red Gore. Not sure what their new name though.

sockwithaticket wrote:
I used purple to do my librarians' force weapons and it got a good reception from people on here.



My regular power weapons are similar, but start at very dark blue. Can't say I've ever really associated purple ones with Chaos and they would really stand out against DA green, so I say go for it.

WOW that looks AWESOME. That is exactly what I am looking for, but perhaps with red. How did you achieve it? Just layered outwards with a strong edging? Here is a picture of the scheme for my Deathwing (a little alternative to most). Greenwing is going to be a VERY dark green, almost black, with lighter green edge highlighting. Ravenwing is the standard black, white, and silver. I am worried that purple may make them look a little too dark, but they could also look stealthy and that would be sweet!


(base has since been painted a subdued brown/greyish moon color)

I give my Dark Angels a sort of lavender color for their purity seal wax and I love it. Was thinking of maybe doing the same for the swords. I am worried the red might make it look to decorative, as I often use red as a compliment color in some of the details. I am also possibly going to be giving them red bolters / weapons so I want the swords to stand out from chainswords. But I may just end up giving them black weapons.


Also, I should note that I do not own an airbrush, nor do I really want to get one any time soon as I like to actually paint my models the old fashioned way.
- VardenV2

 gianlucafiorentini123 wrote:

 the shrouded lord wrote:

 gianlucafiorentini123 wrote:
Red or Purple, especially if you use the video above as guidance I used these colours (and the video) for the power weapons on my IF and WE.

The second pic, power sword, colours, or gw equivelent, how you did it, NOW!!
*stares at you*

White, Sunburst yellow, Blazing Orange and then Red Gore. Not sure what their new name though.

Thank you

VardenV2 - thanks, fella. Yep, you got it. Darken down basecoat with washes then layer up to almost white at the edge.

Personally, I think that purple would work with Ravenwing and Deathwing (particularly given the scheme you've shown), don't know about Greenwing. Bottom line is, though, you won't know what suits your schemes until you knock up some colour tests. Good luck!

sockwithaticket wrote:
I used purple to do my librarians' force weapons and it got a good reception from people on here.



My regular power weapons are similar, but start at very dark blue. Can't say I've ever really associated purple ones with Chaos and they would really stand out against DA green, so I say go for it.

Dude I am so stealing this for my GK. That is just awsome

I did some red Grey Knights once and did some lava-colored power weapons that I quite liked:



And if you're curious as to how I did them, you can check out this video on the subject:

I vote for purple. It goes well with DA because purple leads you to thinking about royalty (the lion, first legion, leaders using power weapons) and secrecy (pretty much DA's thing) and it does it all in a subtle way while also fitting in the color wheel

Cool guys, thanks for the help. I think Purple is my goal at the moment bt I will need to mix up a batch and figure out some color gradients for it. Shouldn't be too hard.

I'm going to do some color test today for red and purple to practice, but I think purple is ultimately going to win out.

- VardenV2

This is my idea...if you like it!
It's a wip...

I paint mine white and use a 50:50 mix of blue (or any other colour) ink and Windsor and Newton iridescent medium over it. Finished off with a white drybrush. Compared to the other methods here its pretty amateur though.

giovani, I really do like that scheme, just not for these models. For something more subtle like Chaos it would be awesome.

I'll try and post some pics of my first attempt today.

Thanks for all of your help

- VardenV2


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And the winner is: PURPLE

I really like it. Here's what I managed to come up with. I did a few practice runs on some sprues and managed to get the blending down pretty OK (it took two tries on the sword),



I feel like it is missing something still though. I want to do the lightning effect, but I am not very good at it, and I think it is a little "cheesy" when people do it to a mediocre quality (no offense to those that do). I may want to go over it with a varnish to give it more of a sheen and make it less matted like the rest of the armor.

Thoughts? Tips on how to improve?

- VardenV2

Also, if you want to see how the whole squad turned out, check out my blog (link in sig) to see this guy and his battle bros ready to go!

 Badablack wrote:
Blue stuff = good guy energy weapons.
Red stuff = bad guy energy weapons.

As far as painting power weapons with crackling lightning, one pretty easy (if somewhat time consuming) method is to lay down the basecoat in the color of your choice.
Put down somewhat thin lines in a lighter version of the basecoat color, then thinner jagged white lines inside them for your base lightning field.
Varnish it up with some brush-on gloss coating, lay it on pretty thick. Apply a glaze that compliments the basecoat once that dries. (blue glaze for blue basecoat, etc)
Now do some more lightning bolts perpendicular to the others, a slightly less vibrant color than the ones underneath. Voila, crackling lightning energy field.

Green for the guys in between. Light side - middle - Dark side of the Force Luke

It turned out really nicely, man. Kudos.