# the melta gun



## primarchXI (Mar 17, 2008)

when you think of a bolter you must think of a bright muzzle flash and a pop can sized bullet killing somthing, and when you think of a plasma gun firing you think of i bright blue (green, red ect.) ball of plasma burning through a enemy of the imperium, but my question today is, what does a melta gun look like when it fires? i dont think GW even knows! on the assault on black reach box it shows a dreadnought shooting a stream of lava like fire from its melta gun, but in dawn of war the commanders melta gun shoots what looks like fire balls. even more puzzling in the dawn of war soulstorm the melta gun fires a bright blue lazer. this is probally the most pointless thing to think of when after all it is a game, but for some reason it also annoys me. so for fluffs sake, does anyone care to pitch in a opinion on what a melta gun would look like when being fired?


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## Son of mortarion (Apr 24, 2008)

it would likely not have any color, or even be directly visible. You might see heat distortions, The melta gun is supposed to be a type of "microwave" gun.


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## Corporal Chaos (Nov 27, 2007)

The info in the WH 40K Battle Manual circa 1992 states that the melta gun AKA Melter, cooker or vape gun works by sub-moleculer thermal agitation in a manner comparable to microwave irradiation. So I think that a type of heat like distortation waves, as was stated above, is the visual that is produced. The same tome also explains that no sound is made except a distinctive hiss when fired becomming a roaring blast as living tissue has the moisture explosively vaporized on contact. Solids would likely just bubble and slough off into puddles. Hope this helps. Pages 50 and 66 are where the melta and Mulit-melta are located.:victory:


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## Cato Sicarius (Feb 21, 2008)

There is a Dark Angels picture somewhere, showing a Dark Angel firing one, and out of the end comes a roaring blue beam (like a Bunsen burner's roaring blue flame, but with a beam instead).


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

I'd always pictured it as producing something similar to what you see coming out the back of a fighter jet


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## Concrete Hero (Jun 9, 2008)

Stella Cadente said:


> I'd always pictured it as producing something similar to what you see coming out the back of a fighter jet


Thats what it looks like in Fire Warrior. You don't get the thing until so close to the end though...


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

Concrete Hero said:


> Thats what it looks like in Fire Warrior. You don't get the thing until so close to the end though...


thankfully I pictured it like that before that god forsaken game, otherwise I'd dismiss it :biggrin:


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Son of mortarion said:


> it would likely not have any color, or even be directly visible. You might see heat distortions, The melta gun is supposed to be a type of "microwave" gun.


I'd agree with this. In the PS2 game Fire Warrior, that's all you saw. There was a brief build up that sounded like a jet engine, and then just heat distortion. It struck me as pretty accurate at the time.


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

I seem to recall old fluff saying it was virtually invisible and silent, right up until it hit someone, whereupon it let out an explosive roar from all the moisture in the target being flash-vaporized


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## Steel Rain (Jan 14, 2008)

I always pictured it making a "DING!" sound whenever you let off the trigger.


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## Grik (Jul 28, 2008)

Steel Rain said:


> I always pictured it making a "DING!" sound whenever you let off the trigger.



:laugh: Ding! Heretics are done!


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## Engelus (Jul 26, 2007)

as with las weaponry it technically should have no visual. to which reason it could have any visual. depending on the atmospheric properties of the planet you are on. what if instead of primarily nitrogen in the atmosphere, you had primarily argon? the energy in the air from the shot may ionize the gas and produce a blue glow.


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## Lord of Rebirth (Jun 7, 2008)

Grik said:


> :laugh: Ding! Heretics are done!


That is to funny. Just replace heretics with loyalist scum now and it will be about right. :grin:


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## Captain Galus (Jan 2, 2008)

I never used the cooker in Fire Warrior because I picked it up once, fired it, and thought it was terribly close range. My loss, I guess 

I always thought it would look like a solid stream of lava to be honest


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## Arkaos (Nov 27, 2008)

Captain Galus said:


> I never used the cooker in Fire Warrior because I picked it up once, fired it, and thought it was terribly close range. My loss, I guess
> 
> I always thought it would look like a solid stream of lava to be honest


that seems about right, theres actually 2 pics in the witchhunters codex of a battle sister and a stormtrooper firing a melta, its like a solid beam of light.

btw i didnt get the black reach dred either, looks more like an inferno cannon to me


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## Deneris (Jul 23, 2008)

I seem to recall some ancient bit of fluff that the victim of a melta-blast was "calcified", and crumbled when touched...

I always imagined it as essentially soundless (Except perhaps for an ominous HUMMMM from the gun) until the target starts essentially cooking in it's juices/sparking; Picture what happens to certain items in a microwave.

Rather interesting that it was a melta blast that almost killed Huron Blackheart... makes you wonder how one "half-microwaves" a SM Lord? :wink:


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## CamTheApostle (Oct 31, 2008)

Deneris said:


> Rather interesting that it was a melta blast that almost killed Huron Blackheart... makes you wonder how one "half-microwaves" a SM Lord? :wink:


They forgot to use the defrost setting?
The rotating plate got stuck?
They rolled a 1 on the Wound dice? 
:grin:

As for what it looks like I bring up three points:
1) Most of the fluff I have heard about all melta weapons describes them as firing a microwave beam. This could possibly be a MASER, which is like a LASER but uses microwaves instead of light (see, the M is for Microwave and replaces the L for light). Therefore, since radiation is generally invisible, one would assume that the blast would be invisible.
2) Guys, its fiction. It can look however you want. If you want it to be a blue beam, its a blue beam. If you want it to be just a beam of rippling air, then that is what it is. Personally, I like to imagine it firing out a rainbow that transforms everything it hits into flowers, butterflies, and cute furry animals. That explode.
3) Chaos Rule!


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## World Eater XII (Dec 12, 2008)

also there tends to be moisture in the air apart from in most work enviromnents especially offices. so could create a visual effect but me personally, i like the DoW one.


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## BlackApostleVilhelm (May 14, 2008)

im guessing it would show either a) steam from the superheated air and then the person or object erupting in flames, or b) just what a heat wave would look like and then the erupting in flames and dying part.


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## Komrad (Oct 30, 2008)

I actually still imagin it as a stream of Lava-like vapour like the dread used stated above, the micro-wave distortion just dosent suit the SM 40k feal..ya no?


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