Weapon Painting Tutorial

So here's the recipe I used for my Gauss Weapons:

It's a very simple, two step process. The first step is about building up a solid foundation in the orange-to-yellow gradient, and the second step is about adding those squiggly lines.

The first step is straightforward:

Just follow the steps left to right:

• After a black base coat, apply a solid layer of white. This will make subsequent layers look clean. If you use a white primer on your minis, you can skip this step.
• Apply a layer or two of Wild Rider Red. At this point try to cover up all the white parts, and it's ok if you get some paint outside the areas you want to glow. There will be cleaning up later.
• Apply a thin layer of Troll Slayer Orange. This is actually the base color we're using, but a red base from the previous step will give it a darker feel.
• Drybrush, or blend, a gradient of Yriel Yellow. If you're blending you might need to mix orange and yellow a bit as a bridge between the two colors.

And that's the first step done!

As for the squiggly lines, I first use Yriel Yellow to freehand a random pattern onto the rods that kinda resembles a DNA strand. Two lines, going up and down, interleaving. In theory power lines are never this simple and symmetrical, but it works for detail this small:

As you can see, the detail gets lost closer to the middle. That's fine, because then I add some strength to the lines using Dorn Yellow. I try to make Dorn Yellow stronger and thicker where lines meet, because that's how lightningy light lines work in nature.

And that's it! I sometimes draw some OSL around the glowy rods, typically using Troll Slayer Orange. But it depends on the model and my mood. My mood more than anything else, to be honest. Anyway, here's a random list of images that show the end result:

Hope that's helpful, at least somewhat! Please ask in the comments below if you have any other questions.

Thanks for taking a look!