Need advice painting a nemesis force stave

[pie_masters]

Hi guys,

I've been painting my grey knights recently, just got back into painting after about 3 or 4 years.
After looking how others paint power weapons I really wanted to give it a go with the blue fading into white. I don't have an airbrush but gave it a go and am pretty happy with the result, although it's not as sharp as I would like. Looking online I saw the hammer and stave were painted metallic but I wanted them to match the blades so decided to improvise.

View attachment 13788

Sorry for the blurry pictures, my fiance doesn't have a macro lens for her SLR and my cameras not around. I'm very happy with how the hammer came out, but I'm not fully happy with the stave. I really like the outer section, fading from blue to white (it looks far whiter than it is in the photo) but i'm not happy at all with the skull. The idea was for it to start dark in the centre (the skull) with the eyes glowing out, lighting the outer regions.

I could really use your ideas on how to improve the skull in the middle to improve the overall look. Thanks for any ideas.

 

[QuietiManes]

I'd think an old boney yellow/brown type of colour would work well on the skull. Orange is a contrast to the blue so using a yellow/brown leaning towards the orange side of things will make it pop. Think "old" bone, not "dirty" bone, because I'd imagine a Space Marine probably takes care of his gear and it's probably not just a random skull, it's probably got some significance (I'm not familiar with the fluff). Bright glowing orange eye sockets! Yeah. That'd be cool. LED's! Haha. Ok, I'm going a little too far now...g'luck.