Bladeguard Veterans: reaffirming my armour painting

In January, for my first project of 2025, I decided to catch up from Christmas 2022 and finally paint my Bladeguard Veterans.

In fairness, there was a dual reason for this as not only did allow my unpainted pile to become a little more recent but it also gave me a chance to effectively reaffirm the process I used to paint battle armour (something which seemed a little all over the place in 2024)

So, after a Primer of Macragge Blue (along with using the pot to catch anywhere I missed), I proceeded to wash the armour only with Nuln Oil. Once that was dried, I drybrush a final coat of Macragge Blue before drybrushing over it with a coat of Calgar Blue. This left me with a tone of blue which look visually consistent to how I'd gotten Uriel Ventris and my last batch of Assault Intercessors

After that, it came down to painting, washing and highlighting the rest of the minis. Those colours were broken down like this:

• Joints/Carapace/Flag - Abaddon Black (B), Eshin Grey(h), Dawnstone (h)
• Sgt.'s hair - Abaddon Black (b), Eshin Grey (h), Fenrisian Grey (h)
• Aquila/Gold Trim - Retributor Armour (b), Reikland Fleshshade (s), Auric Armour Gold (h), Liberator Gold (h)
• Face - Catachan Fleshtone (b), Reikland Fleshshade (s), Bloodreaver Flesh (h), Knight-Questor Flesh (h)
• Metal - Leadbelcher (b), Nuln Oil (s), Ironbreaker (h), Runefang Steel (h)
• Brass - Runelord Brass (b), Nuln Oil (s), Sycorax Bronze (h), Runefang Steel (h)
• Belts/Pouches - Mournfang Brown (b), Agrax Earthshade (s), Deathclaw Brown (h)
• Weapon handles/hilts - Rhinox Hide (b), Agrax Earthshade (s), Gorthor Brown (h)
• Red - Mephiston Red (b), Nuln Oil (s), Evil Sunz Scarlet (h), Wild Rider Red (h)
• Green Trim - Waaagh! Flesh (b), Nuln Oil (s), Warpstone Glow (h), Moot Green (h)
• Purity Seals - Khorne Red (b), Carroburg Crimson (s), Evil Sunz Scarlet (h), Wild Rider Red (h)
• Parchment - Rakarth Flesh (b), Agrax Earthshade (s), Pallid Wych Flesh (h), White Scar (h)
• Rocks - Mechanicus Standard Grey (b), Agrax Eathshade (s), Dawnstone (h), Ulthuan Grey (h)
• White - Celestra Grey (b), Drakenhof Nightshade (s), Ulthuan Grey (h), White Scar (h)
• Broken Staff - Dryad Bark (b), Agrax Earthshade (s), Gorthor Brown (h)
• CSM arm - Thousand Sons Blue (b), Retributor Armour (b), Nuln Oil (s), Liberator Gold (h)
• Base - Steel Legion Drab (b), Armageddon Dust (t), Seraphim Sepia (s), Screaming Skull (h), White Scar (h)
• Cloth - Khorne Red, Waaagh! Flesh, Zandri Dust (b), Agrax Earthshade (s), Evil Sunz Scarlet, Warpstone Glow, Tallarn Sand (h), Wild Rider Red, Moot Green, Screaming Skull (h)
• Shield Skulls - Wraithbone (b), Seraphim Sepia (s), Scraming Skull (h), Pallid Wych Flesh (h)
• Power Swords - Aethermatic Blue, Iyanden Yellow (c), Caledor Sky, Troll Slayer Orange, The Fang, Evil Sunz Scarlet (b), White Scar (h)

After all of that was applied, I finished up by edge highlighting the armour with Fenrisian Grey and applying transfers to provide myself with three complete Bladeguard Vets.

While I'd had some reservations to their quality throughout the painting process, by the end I found myself really impressed with what I'd done.

Of course, there were points of improvement that I hope to take on going forward. For instance, I've now realised that I shouldn't have glued the shields on until after I'd painted. I also need to work on my blending skills as I felt that the power swords looked a little rough (although I'm proud of my layering of the fabrics. I've really gotten the hang of it). Finally, while it seemed like a good idea at the time, Iyanden Yellow may have been the wrong choice for one of the power swords as it didn't come off as bright enough for my liking.

However, despite all of this, I think it's fair to say that the thing I most wanted to focus on, i.e. power armour, came out really well.

Hopefully, next month's Centurion Assault Squad comes out the same with their armour.