Daemons are the best-value painting project in the game because the models are almost entirely skin. There is no armour to mask off and very little wargear, which means a single well-chosen recipe covers ninety per cent of the surface. Contrast and shade paints do enormous work here, and a horde of Bloodletters or Plaguebearers can go from primer to finished faster than an equivalent number of Space Marines.
The catch is that "daemon skin" is four completely different problems depending on which god you have picked.
Khornate daemons
Bloodletters want red skin that glows rather than sits flat. Undercoat white or Wraithbone, then Blood Angels Red contrast for the fast route. For the layered version, base Khorne Red, shade Carroburg Crimson, layer Evil Sunz Scarlet on the raised muscle and highlight Wild Rider Red on the ridges of the ribs, brow and knuckles.
Horns and hooves go Rhinox Hide into Skrag Brown. Hellblades are the accent: Warplock Bronze shaded Agrax Earthshade, then Brass Scorpion on the edges, with Blood For The Blood God run into the fuller for a wet, gore-slicked finish.
Nurgle daemons
Plaguebearers are the most forgiving daemons of all. Plaguebearer Flesh contrast over Wraithbone does almost the whole model, or base Death Guard Green, shade Athonian Camoshade, layer Ogryn Camo and highlight Nurgling Green.
Then dirty it: Typhus Corrosion in the folds and around wounds, Nurgles Rot on open sores and drips, Berserker Bloodshade where the flesh has split. Horns and blades in Skavenblight Dinge with Ryza Rust stippled on top. Nothing about a Nurgle daemon should be clean, which makes it very hard to get wrong.
Tzeentchian daemons
Horrors are the loudest scheme on the list. Pink Horrors: Screamer Pink, shaded Druchii Violet, layered Pink Horror and highlighted Fulgrim Pink. Blue Horrors: Kantor Blue, shaded Drakenhof Nightshade, layered Ahriman Blue and highlighted Blue Horror.
Warpflame is the signature. Build it from the base of the flame outward - Teclis Blue into Baharroth Blue into Ulthuan Grey, with a final White Scar at the tip - and glaze a little Guilliman Blue onto the hand holding it so the light appears to spill.
Slaaneshi daemons
Daemonettes are pale and cold, not pink. Base Slaanesh Grey, shade Druchii Violet, layer Slaanesh Grey back on and highlight Pallid Wych Flesh. Hair, claws and crab-limbs in Naggaroth Night into Xereus Purple into Genestealer Purple, with the very tips of the claws left almost Dechala Lilac. A gloss coat on the chitin against the matt skin is what makes the model read as unnatural.
Tips and common mistakes
- Undercoat light for all four. Every daemon palette is saturated, and every one of them dies over black.
- Contrast paints are not a compromise here. Skin over bare sculpted muscle is exactly what they were designed for.
- Keep the eyes bright. One dot of Yriel Yellow or Moot Green on an otherwise dark face gives a daemon its malice.
- Do not mix the palettes on one model. Each god's scheme relies on being unrelieved. A Khorne red with Tzeentch blue accents reads as neither.