40K Series - Imperial Guard | Tabletop Made Easy

Warhammer 40K Series - Astra Militarum / Imperial Guardsman

The Imperial Guard, or more recently renamed as Astra Militarum are the backbone of the Emporer's force throughout the galaxy. Their courage is second only to how many of them lay down their lives in battle to protect mankind.

The Cadian guardsmen models were my introduction into Games Workshop models, 30K and 40K. As a result of which, they have all been through several stripping and repainting

sessions; bringing them up to date with my current level of paining skill.

I have 140 guardsmen so far, and they're all painted to varying degrees of skill as I have made my way through them. Now that I have a decent technique nailed down, replicating this and keeping the models consistent gets easier with every passing model.

This particular model is called Guardsman Sergeant M. Eat Shield. He is one of Tabletop Made Easy's Mascots.

Lets crack on with the tutorial then.

Before we start with the guide though, there are a couple of points to detail below, which are important to take into account for painting this figure - detailed guides can be found in the 'Painting Guides' tab at the top.

Things like - Basing - Drybrushing - Detailing - Washing - Weathering

If you're unfamiliar with any of these painting techniques, or you are and you think that you could do with a refresher, please follow the links above, or where they're inbeded in the body of the text.

Model parts laid out and cleaned up

Stage 1 - Assembly

Probably as important as the paint job itself is the preparation of the model and the assembly.

Most plastic models are made from injecting hot liquid plastic into a 2-sided mould... so you'll have mould lines. Resin has flashing, which is a similar thing. This all needs to be removed before you paint - because if you don't - it will come out in the detailing and it will look rubbish.

Infantry figures need to be build with careful consideration - Think about where and how accessible your model is when built for a paint brush. As a rule, I always build the model either without the arms, or without the weapon for painting the main bit. On this model, the gun isn't crossing the body, but the re-positioned chainsword is. Chainsword stays off for now. The arm holding the gun is from a Forge World upgrade set.

Stage 2 - Priming and Base Coat

Priming models is the key to making your paint stick to your models, and stay stuck to your models. To get a good clean finish all over - Use an airbrush or a rattle-can primer.

Before painting the model, I set it up in a Citadel Painting Handle, these are very useful for painting models on a stable platform

I used Zandri Dust on this model. With spraying anything, hold the can 4 inches away from the model and dust in the model in light thin coats - Too much and the paint will pool in the detail and make it so that the detail isn't as pronounced - which spoils the model.

Now some of you might be thinking, Zandri Dust is too dark for regular Cadian Guardsman fatigues, but bear with me.

Wait the recommended time from the paint manufacturer to dry, and the move onto basing.

Don't forget to paint the arm holding the chainsword too if you have left it off for basing.

Model is assembled minus the chainsword arm

Model is sprayed with Zandri Dust

Tyrant Skull drybrushing highlights

Stage 3 - Drybrushing / Highlighting

Drybrushing is an easy way of creating highlights on a model, without needing the skill/time necessary to do what the pro-painters do - and layer up several different shades of highlights over the top of one another.

That being said, there's a bit of an art associated with drybrushing, and all it needs is a bit of planning.

In this model's instance, it is being dimly lit from a star/sun directly above it's head. Therefore, the direction of the drybrusing was from top to bottom.

I used Games Workshop's Citadel Tyrant Skull paint to drybrush this model.

Using downward light strokes (see the drybrushing detail page above for how to load the brush), pass your brush over the model, making the brush leave paint on the edges of corners, and lighting leaving strokes on the flatter parts of the model. Continue this in lots of light passes, until you're happy with the level of highlighting required.

Don't worry about getting too much of the highlighting on parts which don't need it.

Stage 4 - Detailing

Cadian Fleshtone & Abaddon Black

Tamiya Field Grey

Leadbelcher and White Scar

Now we're going to be doing the detailing paintwork. Layering these up not only helps batch painting lots of the same kind of model, however painting the white at the end is easier once you've done the green around it.

Firstly, we're going to paint the face and hands (don't forget the hand holding the chainsword) in GW's Citadel Cadian Fleshtone

Secondly we're going to paint the boots, and the belt/yolk with GW's Citadel Abaddon Black

Thirdly, we're going to paint the gun, armour, helmet, chainsword body and waterbottle/knife sheath/spare magazine in Tamiya Field Grey

Fourthly, we're going to paint the gun metal parts, chainsword teeth, exhaust and handle, and water bottle cap in GW's Citadel Leadbelcher

Lastly (and then we'll take a breath) paint the Imperial eagles on the gun, helmet, armour and chainsword in GW's Citadel White Scar

Aaaaaand breath!

Stage 5 - Washes

Now comes the messy/fun bit! Washing the model is a great way of making all of the sunken detail (panel lines, mouths, eye sockets etc) sink back into the model and create the illusion of ambient occlusion.

Giving it a good shake before hand, I used GW's Citadel Agrax Earthshade to cover fatigues, hands and face.

Be sure to cover all of the model; however be careful that the wash doesn't pool on any of the open panel surfaces - use your brush to keep working the wash gently into the recesses, but don't remove the wash completely from the clothing.

Once that has dried, onto the next wash.

Now we're going to be putting GW's Citadel Nuln Oil to cover the rest of the model where the Earthshade hasn't gone on.

Note: Wash goes on very shiny, but usually dries matt.

Give it a long time to fully dry - you may want to batch-do these models, so by the time you have done one or two more, the first one is dry.

That should be it. If you want to do the eyes, I would recommend only doing this if you're feeling confident.

Transfers finish the models off nicely, but for table-top gaming not necessary on Guard I find.

I hope you have found this useful, as always, let me know in the comments box below what you think.

Agrax Earthshade going on the fatigues

Nuln oil going on the rest