How to paint lightning gauss chambers

 

One of the aspects of my Necron army that I've had so much positive feedback about is the lightning gauss chambers I painted on my (admittedly outdated) Necron Warriors and Lokhust Destroyers. Whilst the former have had a kit upgrade since I painted them, the latter is still available to buy in its original format and the various Enmitic weapons we now have in the faction have chambers that this painting technique would still work very well with, so I thought I would break down how to achieve this effect in today's tutorial.

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Paints used in this tutorial:

• Khorne Red (Citadel)
• Evil Sunz Scarlet (Citadel)
• Trollslayer Orange (Citadel)
• Flash Gitz Yellow (Citadel)
• White Scar (Citadel)
• Yellow Glaze (Two Thin Coats)
• 'Ard Coat (Citadel) - Optional

Step 1. Basecoat the chamber(s) with two thin coats of Khorne Red. It helps to paint this over a darker undercoat to give a good contrast to the lightning that we will be painting later.

Step 2. Layer two thin coats of Evil Sunz Scarlet over the chamber leaving some of the Khorne Red showing through towards the front of the weapon. Feather this layer at the end to give a more organic look to the rods.

Step 3. Repeat the last step with Trollslayer Orange, this time painting just under the half way point of the chamber(s). Again, feather the end of this layer for a better transition.

Step 4. Sticking with Trollslayer Orange draw some lightning streaks with a fine detail brush over the section that still shows Evil Sunz Scarlet.

Step 5. Draw some more lightning streaks in the layer that still shows Trollslayer Orange using Flash Gitz Yellow. Using this same colour pick out the points of the lightning streaks painted in step 4 where they fork into new lines.

Step 6. Using White Scar pick out the points of the of the lightning streaks painted in step 5 where they fork into new lines.

Step 7. Glaze the gauss chamber(s) with some Two Thin Coats Yellow Glaze (I used the old Lamenters Yellow in this picture but I have found the Two Thin Coats alternative to gives the same effect and, more importantly it's not out of production).

Step 8. (Optional) Paint a layer of 'Ard Coat over the gauss chambers. The gloss will give the chamber(s) a more glassy look and give the impression that the roiling gauss energies are contained within actual see through barrels.

And that's it! Obviously feel free to swap out the colours as you see fit to suit your own army, the basic steps should work with any Necron scheme. In any case I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, please let me know what you think down in the comments and I will be back with some more tutorials very soon.

- D J Driver