ImpendingDuff is here to show us how to a paint Non-metal metallic power sword – don’t miss out on ramping up your skills!
ImpendingDuff may be somewhat new here, but he’s actually been doing this for a while now. He does great painting tutorials and is definitely worth checking out.
This week he has a solid tutorial on how to nail down that pesky NMM!
How to Paint Non-Metal Metallic Power Sword: ImpendingDuff
NMM is one of the most striking painting applications out there for mini painting, but it doesn’t have to be hard! This is just his style, so take the tips and develop your own style. We are going to need a dark and a light color. So you can even do this with purple, green, or anything really!
He gives a great in-depth description of the concept, so be sure to watch that and understand the concept. Let’s see how to get some power swords looking amazing!
Paints Needed
We’ll only be using 2 colors (pretty much) for this whole thing. Grab Bright Neutral Grey and Warm Dark Grey from Monument, and you’re ready to go!
Step 1
Start with a wet blend on the right side of the word, with the darker color on the bottom, and let it bleed into the top of the sword. Then flip it for the left side, with the light on the bottom, dark on the top. Keep this smooth, but you don’t have to get the best blend ever here.
Just do a lot of passes to build it up and keep your blends clean. Next, you do a glaze of sorts, where you add some dirty paint water to the darker grey, then pull it across the darker color from about 3/4s of the blade. Then do the same for the lighter color. Just keep working back and forth until you’re satisfied with the color and blend.
Step 2
Now, break out the Bold titanium White, and hit an edge highlight on the edges of the blade and the ridge in the middle. That’s how the brushwork side looks at this stage. Now, he wants to show how to do it with the airbrush instead of the paintbrush.
Airbrush
He uses the same colors as before, but this time in the airbrush. First, take some tape and tape off one side of the power sword, right down the middle. Now, take the darker color and feather it from the top down on the one side of the sword. Then switch to the lighter color and hit from the bottom up and feather the colors together to get that blend.
Then, tape off the other side once it’s dry and do the opposite of what you did on the other side, bright top-down, darker down up. To finish this stage off, just edge highlight like from step 2. He then paints the hilt gold but doesn’t really cover the steps.
Step 3
Mix Transparent Blue and Bold titanium White with just a little bit of white. Just enough to give it that smokiness. Take the mix and dot it along the little diode running up from the hilt. Just make sure to hit every edge. You could leave it here, but he goes one step further.
Thin the paint out to more of a glaze and expand the blue ever so slightly around the current blue. You can make this as bright as you want here. To finish it off, he adds back in some Bright Neutral Grey and a little white and highlights the diodes so they stand out a little more.
There you have it, a quick way to paint NMM!
If you liked this feature, be sure to check out his channel for more great tutorials!
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
