Galharen is painting up a Dark Angels Knight in this step-by-step tutorial- check out how to paint the first legion!
Galharen has some amazing tabletop wargaming and miniature painting hobby content. So be sure to follow him to see great painting and conversion techniques. In this painting tutorial, he shows how to paint Dark Angels. This video is pretty in-depth, so you can really get your models on point.
Painting Dark Angels Knight Step-By-Step: Galharen Tutorial
He will break this into a few parts, but this is a converted mini. So, if you want the exact mini, it uses some 3D-printed parts.
Painting the Tabard
He starts by spraying the whole model black and then applying a zenithal highlight with GSW Dark Umber using the airbrush. He then highlights the upper parts of the body with Coyote Brown, with the same idea as the color before, just a smaller area.
For the shadows, he mixes Dark Umber and Scorched Wood and sprays it into the shadows and the bottom of the cloak.
Before you do the highlighting, he paints the armor with black since he didn’t mask it off. One more stage before doing the oil step, he gloss varnishes the whole model. This gives the oil a better surface to work on. Then he mixes Rembrandt Black with Roman Szmal Art mix and washes the whole thing.
This gives you a good depth of color and helps you distinguish between the parts of the model. Now it’s time to highlight. He mixes Ivory Tusk and Moonstone Grey. He edge highlighted with this and added some brush strokes to enhance the tabard.
Painting the Armor
The Horus Heresy era inspires his model, so he’s going in that direction with the color of the armor. He starts by putting Black Stallion, Tropical Turquoise, and Nuclear White onto a wet palette. He mixes the Turquoise and Black to start and slowly starts by highlighting the armor up in layers.
Moving lighter and lighter with each layer he painted on. You want to leave plenty of darkness, as the contrast is what sells the tone of the model.
Gold NMM
He already painted the parts that are supposed to be gold with the base color of Bestial Brown. He then uses Leather Brown to show him where he should put all his highlights. Basically, think of a light source, and that will be the brighter, highlighted areas. To help smooth the transitions, he washes all the areas with Sepia Ink.
He then moves up to Ivory Tusk (mixed with Leather Brown) to hit smaller areas, then just Ivory Tusk, and finally mixes it with white for the very final highlights.
The Sword
He starts by mixing Bluegrey Dusk and Black Stallion from GSW for his first base coat. He hits the whole sword with this. Next, he does the first highlight with Slate Grey and does most of the sword; keep in mind your light source, as you want the main light spots to come from the same place.
In this case, he assumed the light was coming from the right. To keep the transitions smooth, he switched between the base color and the grey to blend it. He also uses the gray here to edge highlight a little, so it will be easier to pick out when he goes to highlight.
Next up is Pale Grey mixed with slate grey. He then highlights a smaller area than before; play with it until you get the smoothness you want. You can also see here he tries almost to crisscross the colors; this will give you a nice effect in the end.
Now, it’s time for the glowing bits. He starts by painting the diodes with Prismatic Blue and a little bit of area around them. He also adds a few bolts around them using white paint.
Finished Model
There you have it, a great-looking mini broken down into easy steps.
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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!
