Painting NMM swords doesn’t have to be complicated; check out this how-to-paint tutorial to get your miniatures on point!
Galharen has some amazing hobby content, and if you need some sweet tips, you should follow him to get up on all your painting and conversion techniques.
In this painting tutorial, he shows how to paint really detailed NMM for a Dark Angels’ swords (well, any swords, really). It’s a pretty neat way to get an excellent effect that will really make your miniatures stand out from the rest.
If you want to see how to paint Dark Angels’ armor, he recently did that with the same model, and you can see how to do that here! For now, though, let’s see how to paint some swords.
Painting NMM Swords: Galharen Tutorial
As we said, we already looked at how to make the armor and get to this point, so let’s finish it up!
Step 1:
He starts by mixing Bluegrey Dusk, Scorched Wood, 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 already a little, so it will be easier to pick out when he goes to highlight.
Step 2:
Next up is Wolven 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 secondary reflections. For this, he starts with Redwood Brown and mixes it with the base color. He gently applies it to the parts where there is really no gray. Once the basecoat is set, he does the same thing with pure Redwood Brown.
To continue, he highlights those areas with Bestial Brown.
Step 3:
He now slowly works on some final highlights by mixing Nuclear White with the Slate Grey in about a 50/50 mix. He uses this to highlight the lightest parts of the blade. He also edge highlights with this. For the final highlight, he mixes Quicksand Brown with white paint and uses this as the highlight for the brownish areas.
The last step is down with the pure white paint, and he does this just where the light hits the hardest and on the extreme edges.
Finished Sword:
There you have it! A great-looking sword without that much trouble! Be sure to watch the video below for all the details:
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Have you tried Painting NMM swords yet?
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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!
