Watch This is a regular series where I find a YouTube video that shows neat tricks or tips for our hobby. From painting, building, or photography, I will be looking for great videos for you to watch and write up a brief summary of the steps used.

This week brings a video from Tabletop Minions with Sam Lenz. He gives a great step-by-step look into how his method of painting power swords. It’s a mix of Non-Metalic Metals with lightning effects and lots of brush licking*.

*There is absolutely nothing wrong with licking your brush 🙂 Well ok, if I could break the habit myself, I would. Some of those paints taste nasty and leave the tip of my tongue tingly

Check out the video here:

Basic Steps

For those who want a run down in text, I’ve put together his steps here on painting power swords:

1. Create mix of water and Acrylic Retardant
2. Lay out blue paints on wet pallet, near-white to dark blue (looked to be about 5 blues) include white and black at each end
3. Paint whole sword with lightest blue and let dry
4. Paint everything three times (his rule of three)
5. Add darker tones, alternate on each side of the sword blade and each end
6. Add thinned white to opposite areas
   

   Painting Power Swords by Sam Lenz

7. Add more and more (and more) thin layers to each end, making it darker and lighter as you go
8. Use white paint to add thin lines across blade for lightning – make it fairly random and split
9. Cover with Blue Ink (perhaps any blue glaze would do). This brings the blues together a bit more
10. Add more pure white as dots along the lightning bolts
11. Add red wash (yep, red) to the dark blue sides to bring them closer to a purple

Wrap Up

While Sam adds way more steps and blends that may be needed for most of my painting, his method seems pretty straight forward. But simple does not imply simple looking. By applying patients and just a few different colors of paints, he was able to create a spectacular effect.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s Watch This on Painting Power Swords and that you may have learned something from it. If you liked Tabletop Minions, check out their channel on YouTube and give them a follow.

Do you have a YouTube video you think I should feature here? Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you want to get more hobby goodness in your inbox, sign up for the Brush Stroke, my weekly newsletter where I send links to some great hobby articles to improve your skills.