Death Guard Daemon Prince

This is one of the most fun to paint figures I’ve had the opportunity to paint recently.

I had a lot of creative freedom with this one, which I used to best realize the client’s vision: a pale, grotesque demon.

“It’s hard to provide specific instructions here, as there was a lot of revising the painted areas and adding new elements.

Skin

The most important part of this miniature—it creates the overall effect, and I put the most effort into it.

The base skin color is a mixture of VGC Wolf Grey, VMC Ivory, and VGC Charcoal. I don’t have exact proportions; you need to achieve a very pale and desaturated blue.

I covered the entire skin with an airbrush because it’s simply faster, and then applied a VGC Umber wash, or alternatively, GW Agrax Earthshade over the entire skin.

While applying this wash, I tried to avoid it pooling heavily in the recesses. Instead, I aimed for subtle transitions from pale blue to brown, which further emphasized the pale tone of the skin.

Next, I lightened the most exposed areas of the skin with the original color using the airbrush, and that completed the basic scheme.

Skin Discoloration

To emphasize something, you need contrast, and this is where these various skin discolorations come in. Plain pale skin wouldn’t create as strong an impression, because our brain doesn’t usually associate it with something alive.

To enhance the effect, I added pink-red discolorations in various places, especially around the mouth on the belly, near the chest and the chain on the shins, and on the face. I softened the transition from pale blue to red slightly with purple (since purple is between red and blue, adding it in the transition reduces the harshness).

Pink and red are associated by our brains with something alive, so the contrast between pale skin and pink irritation makes out model more “disgusting”.

For the red, I used AP Pure Red, and for the purple, VMC Purple, both applied heavily thinned with an airbrush.

Next, I added green to the lower part of the mouth. On the color wheel, green is opposite to red, which means it’s complementary—put simply, it contrasts the most with red.

Adding this muted yellow-green slime leaking from the belly highlights the redness around the belly’s mouth and makes our model look even more grotesque. Here, I used AK Golden Olive, heavily thinned and applied with an airbrush in multiple layers so as not to completely kill the original tone.

Finally, I deepened the shadows using the airbrush and the same VGC Umber wash. Applying it with an airbrush results in fairly weak coverage, which works in this case. We don’t want brown skin here, just a brownish pale-blue. I applied a lot of it on the folds on the back and under the belly.

The interior walls of the mouth were covered with AP Pure Red, and the bottom with AK Golden Olive, then covered with GW Blood for the Blood God and GW Nurgle’s Rot, respectively. In the slime, I mixed Nurgle’s Rot and Blood for the Blood God in some places while still wet, which often gives great effects. The key is not to mix them thoroughly, just add patches; the edges will blend themselves, and if we mix these two colors too much, because they are complementary, we would just end up with a brown color.

I achieved the strands of saliva using UHU glue, which I then gently coated with Nurgle’s Rot and Blood for the Blood God.

The entire skin was refined layer by layer until I achieved the desired effect. If you want to replicate this on your miniature, just try, analyze where things will fit, and you’ll definitely achieve your goal.

Rags and Bandages

The base color is VMC Purple with a slight addition of VGC Midnight Purple. Then, I heavily washed them with GW Druchii Violet, after which I highlighted the edges with the same base color and single points with a slightly lighter purple, like VGC Lustful Purple.

On the rags, I applied highlights with an airbrush.

Metal

I covered the steel elements with VGC Chainmail, or alternatively, GW Leadbelcher, and then washed them with VGC Umber, or alternatively, GW Agrax Earthshade.

For the bronze elements, I used GW Balthasar Gold and also washed them with VGC Umber.

Wood

For the wood base, I used diluted VGC Charred Brown, applied in such a way that the coverage was uneven, so the color wouldn’t be uniform.

Then, I dry-brushed the whole thing with AK Golden Olive and washed it again with VGC Umber.

Bones and Dead Flesh

I covered bones, spikes, etc., with VGC Bone White, or alternatively, GW Wraithbone, and washed them with VGC Umber.

The dead flesh elements in various places on the miniature and on the base were done similarly to the monster’s body, but with more blue added, then covered with VGC Umber and lightly highlighted with the base color using a brush. On the drowned corpse on the base, I also added some pink to suggest that there were still traces of life in it.

Base

I covered the rock with a mixture of VGC Charred Brown and VMC Ivory, then lightly dry-brushed it, adding more Ivory.

I had to sculpt the slime layer at the edges because the print was smaller than the appropriate base for this miniature.

I covered it with VGC Golden Olive, then lightened it a bit with a lighter olive color and finally covered it with Nurgle’s Rot, ensuring the original highlights were still visible.