Death Guard are the most forgiving "advanced-looking" army in the game. The whole faction is built on decay - rust, slime, rot and grime - which means mess is the point. Every imperfection, pooled wash and uneven layer just reads as more corruption, so this is a fantastic army for painters who want a rich, weathered result without needing crisp, clean technique.
The signature look
Death Guard armour is a sickly, washed-out green - somewhere between pallid bone and rotten olive - covered in rust, verdigris, and oozing wounds. The texture-heavy plague armour kits are designed to take washes and drybrushing, so the techniques that look fiddly on smooth Marines are quick and effective here.
Painting the plague armour
The recipe above gives you the base ramp for the pallid green. The corruption comes after:
- Basecoat and shade the armour using the ramp - keep it muted and slightly desaturated.
- Rust and corrosion: stipple orange and brown around rivets, vents and lower edges. Typhus Corrosion or any dark textured wash through the recesses adds instant grime.
- Verdigris: a touch of pale turquoise/green on brass and copper trim sells the centuries of rot.
- Rust streaks: drag thinned orange-brown downward from rivets and chips with a fine brush.
Gore, slime and wounds
The exposed guts and tentacles are where contrast paints shine - a single coat of a flesh or purple contrast over a light base gives instant depth. Gloss varnish or a dedicated "blood"/slime technical paint on wounds and mouths adds a wet, fresh-rot sheen that contrasts beautifully with the matt armour.
Tips and common mistakes
- Let the washes pool. On most armies pooling is a mistake; on Death Guard it is grime. Lean into it.
- Mix your rust. Vary orange, brown and dark red so the corrosion looks organic rather than a single flat colour.
- Matt armour, gloss gore. The contrast between a flat, dusty body and a few wet, glossy wounds is what makes Death Guard look genuinely diseased.
- Don't overdo verdigris. A little on the metal trim is striking; too much turns the whole model green-blue and muddy.