Painting "Plasma Globe" Effects?

[DangerousBeans]

Hey all, decided to convert my Desolation Engine to make him look more "industrial nightmarish" and part of my genius plan was to replace his head with an enclosed helmet I planned on painting like a plasma globe. However it only struck me that painting a 3d plasma globe effect onto a flat surface would be a nightmare unto itself!

Anyone got any tips for achieving this? The helmet is basically two space marine pads glued together and chopped down a bit.

HELP!

[Sholto]

You could paint crackling lightning on it, but without some kind of OSL effect, I doubt it would look right.

An alternative would be to get a transparent hemisphere of the right size (a pen lid springs to mind) and model some lightning inside it. Tricky, but would convey the plasma-globe effect.

Sholto

[Ratchet]

Here's an out-of-the-box idea: What about using a glass marble? I've seen marbles that look like plasma globes.

The trick would be finding one the right size, but I think it would look cool.

I hope you make it work!

[AntiZombie]

there are also some good heroclix that have some cool transparent effects that you could. Mysterio comes to mind. you can find some great deals on ebay for them too

[DangerousBeans]

Hmm I didn't think about using an actual thing...... must be able to find something suitable somewhere. The problem is I've already converted it and modelled extra armour etc to make it fit in

I didn't think it through did I?

[WookieeGunner]

You might look for a painting Power Sword effect. There are a lot of those that give that crackling effect.

Without having tried it my sugesstion would be this (assuming you are painting the inside, for the outside reverse the order):

1) Pick your glow color and paint a small dot of that color's highlight in the center of the hemisphere.

2) Paint a large dot around the small dot in your glow color.

3) Paint around the edge of the opening with your glow color.

4) With a contrasting color, paint faint lightning between the large dot and the outer edge.

5) With almost a wash consistancy, paint the shading color of your glow color from the edge toward the center. Have it feather in and make sure you leave a clear border between it and your large dot.

Basically you want to paint this:

http://hacknmod.com/wp-content/old/pics/961-1.jpg