Question about painting Power Weapons

[V Dubbed]

Like the topic descriptions and title say, I'm wondering what you guys think a power weapon might look like when it's not in use? We've all seen how GW paints up the force weapons on their GK models and mine aren't too different save for the fact that I've opted for red blades as opposed to the blue that we all see on the boxes and in the codex. I find myself needing to paint a weapon that isn't being held and suddenly drew a blank when i was trying to figure out what colour it should be...

 

Would it just look like a normal sword with a silver blade? Should the blade be the base colour of my red force weapons and just don't paint the electricity on the blade?

 

Let me know what you guys think would look cool/ has this ever been mentioned in the fluff or novels?

[sonofpollux]

I always paint my power weapons black and then do some ice blue highlights and lightning on them. But my say would be black

[sonofpollux]

I always paint my power weapons black and then do some ice blue highlights and lightning on them. But my say would be black

[sonofpollux]

I always paint my power weapons black and then do some ice blue highlights and lightning on them. But my say would be black

[The Holy Heretic]

Magenta is the color you want ;)

 

Nah.. Why search for this 'standard'. The Empire has countless worlds and thus raw materials at its disposal, so you should feel free to choose any color. Remember its because of some mad and innovative painter that orks are green today :devil:

[kapturowski]

I paint them silver. My reasoning behind that is that power weapons are "ordinary" weapons surrounded by a power field and it is this field that gives them unusual colours.

[Iron Lord]

I figure that (if the weapon has circuitry) that's enough to communicate "power weapon".

 

If it doesn't, I do some form of decoration to make it stand out from a normal weapon- a blue-white line down the edge of the blade.

[thade]

Personally, I see them as weapons wreathed in energy fields (their sort of narrative description) and those fields are really the source of their color. They're not lightsabers, after all; they take the shapes of axes and hammers at times. :P I paint my "powered down" weapons in metallics, as if they are normal versions of the weapons they represent.

[Something Wycked]

Fluff exists (that I can't cite at the moment) that power weapons are not always made of "normal" weapon materials, because the bearer is not depending on normal weapon qualities; the power field around the weapon does the heavy lifting, not the base material. Due to this, the weapon itself could be brightly colored plastics/composites or some other exotic material found in the 40k universe.