NMM is definitely a difficult technique. I appreciate any fedback i can get, and where better to get help than CMON? I. Do want the transitions to be better/smoother, what is the "glaring" technique you mentioned? I have heard that glazes can help to smooth transitions also. Where are you getting your NMM guidance from?
Hey buddy. I got loads of advice from the articles section on this site. Have a look under the painting tab and there are a few on there. I also use a really good article from White Dwarf - Darren Latham Sanguinor Painting masterclass which gives really good colour mixes to get you started.
The glazing process is an interesting one. Essentially you take your basecoat colour, mix it with water so that when you you run your brush on a paper towel the colour is very dilute. Probably 10:1 water to paint. When you have painted some highlight/shade transitions and there is a bit of roughness, get some glaze, blot most out on paper towel (this isn't a wash) and draw your brush over the area you want to smoothen. What you are aiming for is such a thin layer of glaze that dries really quickly when blown on. You should not have so much on the brush so it runs into recesses....although you may get a bit of this as you learn so have a dry brush to hand to soak it out again. You will see no difference from the first few applications as the paint pigment is so dilute but after several layers you should start to see it pull your transitions together.
Word of warning - the more you do this, the more you pull your colours back towards your basecoat so I would try and use sparingly and if you have bright spots, maybe come back and hit them again after glazing.
Its essential your original paints are thinned so that your layers are smooth with no lumps and bumps as when glazing you will find it starts to pool/get stuck in imperfections on the paint surface.
Hope this helps - am learning myself so I have to use this a lot to pull my shoddy blending back. Also very difficult on fiddly areas, I find it better on larger flatter zones but this is where transitions stand out more when not great anyqay.
Cheers
Will