WARGAME COLOR SET. BLUE PLASMA AND GLOWING EFFECTS.

Cold energy step by step

The eye reads blue as cold, which is why it suits force fields, ion thrusters and blades that are meant to look icy rather than white-hot. The box arranges four acrylics into a single continuous range: a rich imperial blue, a slightly purplish ducat blue, a light sky blue and a pastel green as the summit of the whole series.

That last one tends to surprise newcomers. Instead of white, which would close the transition off deadly, the pastel green gives the center a greenish cast of the kind you know from real discharge tubes. Anyone wanting an even sharper peak adds a thin line of white from another box on top of it.

The shades suit both brush and airbrush. On small figures the work is done rather by brush and patient layering; on larger surfaces such as ship hulls or cover panels it pays to spray heavily thinned coats and let the tone underneath show through.

Contents of the package: four bottles of 17 ml, a water-thinnable acrylic with a matte result. A primer coat underneath is recommended; on bare plastic and on resin the blue tones hold less well and rub off against your fingers with frequent handling.

Storage affects the life of paints more than people expect. Close the bottles carefully and wipe the thread, because dried residue in the groove gradually makes it impossible to tighten the cap and the contents thicken within a few months. Keeping them out of direct sun and away from frost goes without saying, as frozen acrylic does not come back together once it thaws. A practical little habit is to note the date of first opening on the bottom.