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So I've been browsing a site with some pretty awesomely painted miniatures and the ones that stood out the most to me seem to have this smooth gradient shading thing in common.
here are some examples:








so any suggestions on how I can achieve this? use more layers?get a paintgun/airbrush?
are there any good tutorials out there?

In this order: Generally

Use thinner paint (water it down more)
Paint more layers
Use washes

or

Use wet blending

Or

Two brush painting method.

And to really achieve the effects, you'll probably have to do all 3.

Or cheap out, get a good photo editing program and go to town on any painted miniature LOL.

airbrush ?

Airbrushes are great at painting gradients, but can be a sizable investment and are of limited use when working in tight confines and on small/intricate details.

For brush painting, your main methods are going to be wet blending and very dilute paint/lots of layers. Washes give a nice gradient, as well, but the size of that transition is somewhat limited.

Personally, I use the "cheater" version of the layering method - I use relatively dilute paint to get reasonably smooth transitions between layers, then apply a glaze of dilute ink or premixed wash to further soften the steps. This method ups the color saturation and darkens the underlying colors, somewhat, so you may have to bump your initial palette a notch lighter to get the intended effect.

Paint it before assembling it, plan it out, use an airbrush, light highlights with a brush.

thanks for the advice everyone!
It's good to know that it's possible to get this effect without getting an airbrush (might be easier with one but oh well), damn things are too pricey.