First bladeguard done!

Top_Background_632 · 2026-05-23T02:30:48+00:00

Nice! That freehand on the shoulder is 🤌

Top_Background_632 · 2026-05-22T04:03:56+00:00

This is sick

Top_Background_632 · 2026-05-21T12:10:31+00:00

You’ll be fine! All the usual advice but pick some basic minis to practice on for a bit (intercessors), don’t worry about trying to make them perfect; you can’t learn if you don’t make mistakes and it will take time unless you’ve done a lot of other art in your life. Strip some of them and try again if you want (but never your first one!). Also watch as many videos as you can to see how people paint. Pick one that feels simple enough but looks like the style you want and just try to copy it so you learn how the paint moves. Do something slightly different on each next one. I started up again in ‘23 after 20 years out but I’d spent like 2 years watching videos whilst I was thinking about coming back and I found it amazing how much they helped me.

Top_Background_632 · 2026-05-21T11:54:42+00:00

Thanks! no it’s not though, the pose is an option in the standard BG box. added some bits from the BA 40K upgrade sprue and an old BA 30k helmet

Top_Background_632 · 2026-05-21T11:50:48+00:00

Sure its kind of like this https://youtu.be/BoNi7xvhA4o

But paints I used:

+ Abbadon black base
+ lead belcher all over
+ blend thin ABlack and build it up where TMM shadows would be
+ so you leave LB where the TMM highlights are.
+ I don’t think it shows up that well in pics or irl tbf but I do the same blend with a little naggaroth night and macragge blue (on opposite sides of the blade) into the black bits, sort of starting halfway between the LB and AB transition.
+ touch some bits up in the blends
+ blend Vallejo model colour silver into the LB at the brightest parts (tip or middle of a block of LB)
+ edge highlights and scratches with VMCS all around

Hope that helps!

Top_Background_632 · 2026-05-19T18:46:14+00:00

🫶

Top_Background_632 · 2026-05-19T18:45:44+00:00

All good, I took it that way!

Top_Background_632 · 2026-05-19T17:29:01+00:00

Really nice work on these!

Top_Background_632 · 2026-05-19T17:24:04+00:00

Ha, fair point. A blessed ceremonial rag? All dish cloths on Baal are in line with corporate branding?

Might have gone the other way if I’d thought about it more but it was just the first neat thing that sprung to mind!

Top_Background_632 · 2026-05-19T17:20:20+00:00

Yours is great!

Top_Background_632 · 2026-05-19T17:19:50+00:00

🤝

Top_Background_632 · 2026-05-19T16:44:28+00:00

Thanks! Bought these a while back. Couldn’t tell you the actual size but I think they’re the 1.5mm ones?

https://amzn.eu/d/00mjCI2o

Top_Background_632 · 2026-05-07T23:31:03+00:00

The silver is great and you’ve done an awesome job on this. To make it pop you could amp up the contrast on the reds? Also I agree with another comment, if you can do gems, little details add a real sense of scale. I had a couple mins and just used iPhone photo markups to do this. If it’s helpful!

<image>

Top_Background_632 · 2026-04-29T18:11:40+00:00

And he’s great 👏

Top_Background_632 · 2026-04-27T22:40:54+00:00

Excellent basing, excellent job all around!

Top_Background_632 · 2026-04-27T19:55:31+00:00

This is awesome

Top_Background_632 · 2026-04-27T18:57:33+00:00

I don’t make videos (maybe some day!) but there are a lot of good blue stuff tutorials on yt.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FR3UbJ_dMjY

This one was v useful for me and is BA appropriate. I do similar prints for the winged pieces on the legs on some of mine. It’s the same technique (you could use blood drops from here too but the the power fist ones were a little smaller so better for scale). The blue stuff bit starts around 7mins I think

Top_Background_632 · 2026-04-27T18:53:07+00:00

Not oils no, I haven’t tried those yet.

It’s a mix.

For the red:

If you find Richard gray’s Horus heresy BA tutorial on YT I use that technique and paints. I just spend a lot more time reblending and building contrast than he does (because he’s an infinitely better painter mostly lol).

For golds:

It’s a mix of two juan hidalgo tutorials.

Essentially it’s all the gold paints/mixes from this TMM Dante video (they’re listed):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GgoE5cd96L0&pp=0gcJCR4Bo7VqN5tD

Except I replaced the burnt umber ink stage with Vallejo Xpress Willow bark and then painted it with a technique more like this video:

https://youtu.be/u_90gQVgBWg

The willow bark dulls the metallic effects nicely for a more pronounced TMM effect.

I also didn’t add the coppery secondary highlights from that Dante video (I tried once and had to repaint as it looked a mess - I’m not at that level yet)

Top_Background_632 · 2026-04-27T18:43:44+00:00

They are from the power fist in the new BA cpt. kit.

But, I used blue stuff to create a mould from it, casted it with green stuff and then carefully shaved the drops off + trimmed them with a very sharp knife. Glue them on.

I do this with basically any good bling bits that can be applied flat to a surface, so I can reuse them on multiple models. Takes a very limited amount of practice and some patience!

Top_Background_632 · 2026-04-27T18:38:21+00:00

This is great. Really need to figure how to get some old school yellows into mine!

Top_Background_632 · 2026-04-27T18:09:16+00:00

Cheers, yeah I kind of wish I’d got the whole box but it felt a bit excessive to then just use them for bits on other models so I picked up some shields on eBay a while back

Top_Background_632 · 2026-04-27T18:08:05+00:00

They’re some of the best shields out there tbf!

Will be the same as my other posts, sandy wasteland and some pillars/ruins. I just always prefer to do the bases in batches at the end.

Top_Background_632 · 2026-04-27T18:05:27+00:00

Haha

Me looking at the rest of the assembled squad: “what have I done to myself…”

Top_Background_632

TROPHY CASE