What is your secret Plasma recipe?

[he_plays_guitar]

Hey all,

 

I'm painting up the details on my Dark Angels, and I was wondering what the general consensus is on the forums here. How do you paint your plasma coils on your plasmaguns and plasmacannons? I have a bunch to paint and I wanted to know if you have any advice. Is there a "real" way to paint plasma coils, like an in-universe reference? Or is it just a "paint it glow-ey" type of opinion? I have all my Chaos plasma coils painted dark red, faded up to orange, and then fading up to white. They have kind of a lava theme so it fits. But what about the Dark Angels?

[Lord_Edgimus]

i like to use an ice blue or the light purple for mine, but as far as i can see there is no must have colour for plasma, i assume it'd be white at fully charged due to the superheating of the plasma

[Zeller]

Considering that the coils are simply magnetic rings why would they be any color other than a metal similar to that of the gun? If the coils are glowing then either you have a leak or a gun that's so hot you shouldn't be wielding it in the first place. Rule of cool aside.

 

If it's any indication, yes, my coils are boltgun.

 

*flees back to the BA forum*

[Alys Dwr]

Considering that the coils are simply magnetic rings why would they be any color other than a metal similar to that of the gun? If the coils are glowing then either you have a leak or a gun that's so hot you shouldn't be wielding it in the first place. Rule of cool aside.

Or swithched off/discharged. The coils are indeed metallic but they are not seemless. The magnetic field generated through the coils contains the plasma inside but there is still a gap enough for light to escape, diffract through the field and make it appear that the coils themselves are glowing. These gaps are neccessary in the contruction of the weapon to prevent overlapping polarities of the containment field which would render them ineffective.

 

Due to the highly charged nature of the plasma and the specific wavelengths of light emitted, mine appear blue in colour.

 

 

Al :huh:

 

(Yeah, mine are blue. No specific recipe though. I haven't painted any for a while but i think i started off with ultramarine and add more whire to it, highlighting the coils.)

[he_plays_guitar]

So blue is the common color? Kind of represents the "hot" white color I guess. So, do you paint it all white and then wash it with blue, or do you paint blue and highlight up to white? I think both versions would look equally good.

[Master Toddius]

I start with white, then add hawk turquoisein the middle of the coils, then add blue wash, and highlight the corners white with a slight blue wash.

[steps back into the shadows of chamber 73 to wait for the next codex and our returned glory]

[he_plays_guitar]

Master Toddius, I am truly envious of your painting skills. I like the plasma coils alot, as well as all of your models. You have a very clean and crisp style of painting, and I love the attention to the dark lining and highlights. Thanks for posting up the pics, you're an inspiration.

[tahrikmili]

I used to paint Green, but I switched to blue plasma.

[Dogbreath99]

I like to do mine in a glowing blue or yellow. You can do succesive washes very litley around the coil to make it look like it's glowing. Although one of my marines blew himself up 3 straight times in 3 consecutive battles. so I painted his plasma gun bright glowing red (GETS HOT!).

[he_plays_guitar]

Haha! Sounds like your squad needs to do some daily maintenance on your Plasma weapons. So do they all draw straws to see who is the unlucky guy who has to carry the Plasma into battle?

[Isiah]

So blue is the common color?

 

I think blue is popular because it contrasts nicely with the DA Green armour. Same reason many ultramrine modellers paint theirs a contrasting green.

[Brother Kovash]

I've always painted mine dark angels green followed by snot green, then a light drybrush of boltgun metal.

[Techmarine.Varrius]

I paint my plasma guns a blue. Hawk turquoise is a good base colour, highlighted with mixes of ice blue and white. A purple might be nice something like this colour i would imagine :

http://virtual.vtt.fi/virtual/proj4/fusionprogram/plasma2.gif

[Alys Dwr]

Techmarine.Varrius, is that the inside of the JET fusion reactor when it's fired up?

 

Al

[Techmarine.Varrius]

Yeah it is, I found it on google somewhere, used it in physics a while ago.

[Angel_of_Caliban]

I like mine either Light Ice Blue look or a Light Neon Green. Depending on my mood and army. I also like my PW Ice Blue or Ice Green.

[Alys Dwr]

Yeah it is, I found it on google somewhere, used it in physics a while ago.

Cool. I'd only ever seen images of the inside when it wasn't running. Really space age shiny stuff. Looking now i see there are plenty of pics/videos of it in action.

 

I think a purple plasma glow could look very good on DA if done right - the slight red tinge would make it pop out against the green of ou armour.

 

Al

[Grand Master Belial]

I've also gone the blue route since it is supposed to be a hotter color. I've dabbled with purple but ended up repainting it to blue and using the purple recipe for the Librarians Force Weapon. I steer clear of red to avoid the Christmas Angels logo. I haven't got the knack yet with very thin coats for a wash.

[Firenze]

I use a blue, even though my chapter is blue and white. I use a regal blue undercoat, then drybrush enchanted blue over with a very fine drybrush of white over that. It really makes it bright. I thought originally when testing it it would be a bit bland but it had the opposite effect.