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I'm putting together a Tau army and since I think I'm a unique little snowflake I wanted to make them a little different and have them carry green energy blades (looks good with Farsight color scheme).

But the thing is I'm not sure how to paint one to properly show it's an energy blade, and not just a power blade. I haven't stumbled on any pictures of "energy blades", has anyone seen something along those lines?

I'm hoping to get an effect something similar to energy blades in Defiance (the cancelled TV show)


I'm thinking of having my whole fire warrior squad carry wakizashi-style scabbards , although I guess energy blades might not need them But I'll at least have my Fireblade with a drawn blade. If anyone has seen something like that I'd appreciate any pics.

I'd appreciate any help

Try using a bright silver basecoat with a green glaze over the top. You can then highlight the edges in silver again and re glaze.
The results would look something like the axe below but in green instead of purple.

Based on that photo I would consider OSL techniques going from white to fluorescent yellow to fluorescent green, similar to what I did on these BFG ships

Transparent green plastic?
Cut the shape of the bade out of a blister and then apply glaces?

tomcat31 wrote:Try using a bright silver basecoat with a green glaze over the top. You can then highlight the edges in silver again and re glaze.
The results would look something like the axe below but in green instead of purple.

I think this looks good as a power weapon, but I'm not getting the "energy" feel I'm after, perhaps I'd just need to give it a go and see how it comes out though

timd wrote:Based on that photo I would consider OSL techniques going from white to fluorescent yellow to fluorescent green, similar to what I did on these BFG ships

Oh that effect looks great! This might be just what I'm after!

Mud Duck wrote:Transparent green plastic?
Cut the shape of the bade out of a blister and then apply glaces?

In some ways it seems like a great idea and in others a bad one, it would certainly give the impression of the slim energy blade and avoid it looking like a lightsaber

Heres your image without special effects (sorry about crud photoshop skills)

Seems like reverse highlighting would achieve the same look. The base would be the source (white) with the edges having the lowest luminescence.

 Snuggles wrote:
Heres your image without special effects (sorry about crud photoshop skills)

Spoiler:

Seems like reverse highlighting would achieve the same look. The base would be the source (white) with the edges having the lowest luminescence.

Oh thanks a lot for taking the time to do this man!

Yeah I was thinking I could just "look at the pic", but with the illumination effect was still too distracting. This makes it clearer and it makes sense that the intensity of the energy diffuses the further it is from the source.