Chaos Daemons Review: Daemonettes of Slaanesh

Daemonettes are still high initiative and good WS.  They still lack in the toughness department and they still have rending and fleet.  Plus they can run a valuable extra 3" thanks be being Slaaneshi.  Keep the pink horrors at home: I'm taking these androgenes and the plaguebearers!

Sure, they lack durability.  But that's not the point.  They can hit hard, travel quick, rend light vehicles to death and out-initiative marines in close combat.

The Alluress upgrade should be automatic: the extra attack for 5 points is a great deal for the Slaaneshi player. In terms of rewards, the ether blade (normal or greater variant) should be a great option for the daemonettes.  The rapturous standard is interesting, but probably not strictly required I think -- unless the daemonettes are aiming at taking monstrous creatures down.  The instrument is also worthwhile on one squad here and there.

Here are a pair of sample builds

12 Daemonettes of Slaanesh, Alluress with Etherblade (123 points)
A small tactical and surgical strike squad suitable for forward deepstriking.  They'll probably get shot to pieces, but a few should survive to rend their opponents.  Alternatively look to rend a light vehicle to death. And 12 is a multiple of Slaanesh's holy number (six), so its also fluffy.

20 Daemonettes of Slaanesh, Alluress with Etherblade, Instrument of Chaos, Icon of Chaos (215 points)
A large squad of forward deepstriking, or rear guard actions, and also scoring.  Get them in combat as soon as possible.

Chaos Daemons Review: Herald of Slaanesh

The Herald of Slaanesh is a neat choice, and has application in both mono-Slaaneshi forces and mixed forces.  I think these daemonettes have many interesting configurations and options.

Firstly, in terms of the rewards that they can choose, the Slaaneshi weapons in both lesser and greater rewards are tempting (S5 rending and 2d6 ranged assault weapons).  The etherblade is not bad either with AP2 (but we already have rending), so if we're doing that, then perhaps a greater etherblade would be superior.

In psychic abilities, the herald has access to the telepathy and Slaanesh's own discipline.  Telepathy is, of course, powerful, but it can be a bit of a gamble to get a good roll there.  So if we're doing psychic abilities, I'd be taking level 2.

The Locus abilities are similarly strong.  I'm particularly smitten with the exalted locus: re-rolling all to hit rolls and selecting who accepts a challenge in melee.  The greater locus (+5 I) is neat, but perhaps not as needed.  The lesser locus (move through cover) is okay.  But for me, the exalted locus is where it is at!

The herald can also select a steed of Slaanesh, chariot and exalted chariot.  The first is useful so that the herald can run with the other pleasure-seekers, whilst the chariots are a good way to top up the totaly number of chariots in the army should a mono-Slaanesh player be going down that particular route.

Here are a selection of builds to consider:

Herald of Slaanesh, Exalted Locus of Beguilement, witstealer sword (85 points)
A lower points value build, but valuable inside a maximum sized squad of daemonettes.

Herald of Slaanesh, Exalted Locus of Beguilement, Steed of Slaanesh, Level 2 Psyker (140 points)
To run with the seekers!  Consider a greater etherblade to taste.

Herald of Slaanesh, exalted seeker chariot, lash of despair, level 2 psyker (195 points)
A hugely expensive herald, but a way to have many more chariots inside the army.

Chaos Daemons Review: Masque of Slaanesh

The victim of one of Slaanesh's mood swings, the Masque is cursed to eternally dance across the galaxy and draws mortals and unborn alike in to her jig.

As per the previous edition, her major draw back is the lack of independent character status.  She can and will get shot to shreds in next to no time should the opposition desire it.  So to use her, she needs to be screened until she is in position (12") to use her dance abilities on enemies at which point she wants to charge (along with another nearby unit preferably).

She has 3 different dances that she can use on opponents.  These range from -5WS (strong, but not the best), some AP2 hits (not going to do much given S1), and -5BS with no overwatch.  This latter one is powerful and can keep (e.g) potent flamer units at bay.

Her final boon is to re-roll her invulnerable saves: this is a solid buff, but it won't stop her from getting slaughtered.  Her low toughness and lack of independent character status will bring her down very quickly.  I used to use her in the previous edition to drag opponents out of cover, but this is no longer possible.  Hence I don't think I'll be using her any longer.  This makes me sad, but its kind of inevitable.  

Wargames Gallery: Daemonette Captures the Flag

The daemonette secures the objective flag, supported by a soul grinder in the background.

Wargames Gallery: Daemons Pincer Dark Angels Scout

After a lethal volley from horrors of Tzeentch, the lone remaining Dark Angels scout looks the objective-holding plaguebearers in the eye(s) with grim determination.  Too late he hears the playful laughter of the hand-maidens of Slaanesh race up behind him in a pincer movement.

Daemonette of Khorne?

There are many players who use troops from multiple chaos powers within a mono-chaos-god daemons army.  I've seen red plaguebearers filled with Khornate bloodlust; and green bloodletters, bloated with Nurgle's favour.  Yet, I've not seen any Khornate daemonettes.  On reflection, the reason for this is probably straight-forward enough: bloodletters are better than daemonettes on most fronts in game terms.

Notwithstanding the game itself(!), I decided to try my hand at making a daemonette look a bit more Khorne-aligned with a spot of red and brass paint work.  The miniature pictured is a standard daemonette of Slaanesh (with a few bits and bobs added to the base).  I decided to follow my own approach to painting bloodletters to paint the daemonette.  A mechrite red base coat was applied to a black undercoat in one layer, followed by an inking of a red/black mixture.  Highlighting was then performed using both mechrite red and blazing orange.  This step is particularly noticible on the lips of the daemonette which seem to be accentuated using this paint scheme.  The corset and vestements are picked out in shining gold and final detailing (eyes, claws, hair) are also picked out appropriately. 

The overall feel of the miniature is edging toward Khorne, but yet the miniature retains a very strong Slaanesh feel to it regardless.  It's a strange mixture of colours that would not doubt make Slaanesh chortle ever so slightly. 

Daemonette in Purple Corset

Apart from having to paint intricate details on 28mm scale miniatures, there's very little not to like about corsets.  This daemonette is sporting the 2011 purple (mayhaps pink?) look, with some whiter highlights which really bring out her sharp white teeth and eye saucers... 

Having painted lots of these daemonettes now, I've found that I think bluer colours seem to work better for my painting style for these fashion accessories.

The hair was painted in a similar colour, with accents of pink, red and magenta showing through.  The base meanwhile is a blend of Hirst Arts bits with random metal off-casts, highlighted in an urban theme via some edge highlighting and drybrushing. 

Statistics: How Many Daemonettes?

With daemonettes of Slaanesh, I want them to primarily be rapid moving infantry killers, with a secondary suite in light tank busting. So how many of them do I need to accomplish each of those tasks with a reasonable chance of success?Against Infantry.
We'll use the same situation as with the bloodletters: a ten man strong space marine squad armed with bolters, a multi-melta and a flamer. How many daemonettes might I lose before they reach their target? Well, firstly I'm going to suggest that they can completely avoid the flamer due to their fleet special rule. With luck, they may also be able to avoid rapid fire range of the bolters (depending on the opponent and the gaming situation at hand). Hence, we have 8 bolter shots and a multi-melta shot to weather before close combat ensues. The bolters hit on 3+ and wound on 3+. The multi-melta wounds on 2+. In total, I might expect an average of 3.56 + 0.11 = 3.67 wounds. Each daemonette gets a 5+ invulnerable save, leading to 2.45 unsaved wounds. Let's round that up and say 3 daemonettes may die before getting in to melee with the space marines.

In close combat, the daemonettes strike first due to their high initiative. They have 4 attacks each on the charge, hitting on 4+. Hence 2 attacks will hit on average. Of those hits, one in six will cause a wound and a further one in six will rend (i.e. no save). Therefore the marines take 0.33 "normal" wounds and 0.33 rending wounds, on average. With a 3+ save against the normal wound, the typical daemonette causes 0.44 unsaved wounds on the charge. Even with 20 daemonettes, I'm not going to be able to alpha strike the space marines out of existence. But for a smaller squad of, say 5 marines, 12 daemonettes will take care of them in an alpha strike on average. From experience, this feels about right given that I usually have to back my daemonettes up in close combat with another unit.
Light Tank Busting.
Remarkably, daemonettes can pose a problem to AV=10 tanks. This is due to the rending special rule. If they roll a 6 on their armour penetration, it means they get an extra d3 to roll. That extra d3 results in at least a glancing hit (penetrating two thirds of the time). Assuming that the daemonettes charge the tank, they will get 4 attacks each. Hence even two daemonettes should be statistcally enough to result in a glancing hit if the tank has not moved. Three daemonettes would be needed if they are only hitting on 4+ to cause a glancing hit. At flat out speed, they will be hitting on 6+. To cause a glance (statistically), we will then need 9 daemonettes.

Of course, I haven't spoken about the result of the glance or penetrating hit. That's another die roll entirely. But against tanks that haven't moved, or have only moved a "normal" amount, daemonettes in small numbers can pose problems. Hence I think I will take about 12 daemonettes in a squad: not only is it fluffy, but they can also handle a small combat against marines and pose issues to light tanks.

Painted Slaanesh Possessed Marine / Sorcerer

The Wormtongued Slaaneshi marine was assembled a little while ago and has been sitting, staring at me waiting for a paint job ever since. He eventually got painted in the dead of the night (in between changing nappies) and so isn't quite as good as I wanted him to turn out.

The robe is a purple colour, highlighted (a little too much) in pure skull white. I think it is this aspect of the miniature that I find most disappointing -- the white lines should have turned out much, much thinner. I think I selected the wrong brush to paint with that night!

Not withstanding that, I like how the purple of the robe has turned out and am pleased with the reds of the head and arms. The power armour has been picked out in blacks and metallic colours and isn't too shabby at all. I think it would be a straight forward job to reduce the extent of the white robe edging and mark this miniature "pop" a little more.

Sweeping Necrons with Daemonettes

In the small number of games I've played daemons against necrons, I've learnt that the I need to totally avoid any Monoliths that may be on the board, and any C'Tan. Instead, my tactical aim is to aim for a phase out victory by destroying all necron warrior squads present and forcing their vanishing.I attempt to do this by putting my bloodletter and daemonette squads on the front line. In particular, the daemonettes have assault grenade equivalents that are useful against the (usually) static (4th edition style) gunline warrior squads holed up in scenery.

The trick is to take enough daemonettes and bloodletters to overcome any incoming gauss weapon fire. And then charge. With any luck, the necron's leadership value will be reduced to something suitably low. When they flee, the high initiative of the daemonettes is nearly always sufficient to give a sweeping advance.

Meanwhile, if there are any C'Tan on the board, I'll aim to tie them up with plaguebearers or other Nurgle daemons. They're useful in this situation due to their poisoned weapons which always wound on 4+, and their general tar-pitting utility. Monoliths are then either completely ignored, or I will just bait them with a Great Unclean One or daemon prince as a road bump.

In many ways, this is no different to the way in which many players attempt to play against necrons. But with their deep-strike ability and high initiative, I've found daemonettes to be neat exponents of this tactic; given a reasonable deep strike on to the gaming board.

Slaanesh Possessed Marine (or Sorcerer?)

Hot on the heels of the bloodletter possessed marine, this chaos devotee has allowed himself to be possessed by a Slaaneshi villain. I'm not quite sure whether it is a daemonette, or something more sinister, but it is very Slaaneshi!

The bits consist of a back-2-basix resin base on top of which I've attached a Dark Angels veteran body (with imperial iconography scrubbed away). The back pack comes from the possessed chaos space marine kit. The marine's right arm is a regular chaos marine arm, but cut off at the hand. Pinned to the stub of the wrist is a daemonette banner hand and icon. Meanwhile the left arm is a standard possessed marine arm - chosen to be the clawed arm to be suggestive of Slaanesh once more. The shoulder pads are just standard chaos space marine ones (the right pad being the aspiring champion shoulder pad of Slaanesh). The head is taken from the daemonettes plastic boxed set -- it is actually the instrument! The excessively long tongue on it immediately cried out to be used as a Slaaneshi head when I first saw the daemonette sprue, and I've been wanting to use it as such ever since.

The marine could be used in a number of roles, much like the bloodletter possessed one. I'm thinking not only a standard possessed marine (with icon?), but also a chaos lord or a chaos sorcerer of Slaanesh with the Lash of Submission psyker ability (where the icon will be a force weapon).

Battle Summary: Daemons vs. Chaos Space Marines (200 points Kill Team)

A small, pictorial battle report today on a kill team game (200 points) between Slaanesh daemons and Chaos Space Marines with a Khorne berzerker orientation.

Slaanesh Daemons:
10 daemonettes of Slaanesh (140 points)
2 fiends of Slaanesh (60 points)

Chaos Space Marines / World Eaters Warband:
8 Khorne Berzerkers, including 1 skull champion with a power weapon (198 points)

All the miniatures in the pictures are my own in this friendly battle.

In order to tell you what happened in the battle, I'm going to try out one of Ron's ideas from a year or two ago: I'm only going to post the pictures and let you figure out what happened. The end result should be obvious!






The only question remaining is whether you can pick the miniatures that had special rules (e.g. feel no pain) associated with them :)

Slaanesh Daemons Kill Team

Following Tzeentch, I think the next easiest themed daemon army to get to work is the Slaaneshi one. They get to choose between fiends, daemonettes, and seekers.

Fiends of Slaanesh are just as awesome here as in a regular game. The only question is how many to take and whether to upgrade one with unholy might. I think in a low points value game, unholy might probably doesn't need to be there in combination with rending.

Daemonettes with the fleet and rending are also a good core choice. They don't have a high toughness and get killed fast, but once they're in combat, they should be winning, and winning fast. Again, I'm not tempted by any of the upgrades in a 200 point game. Although transfixing gaze may be cool, it just isn't worth it since I'd hope the opponent won't get a chance to strike back (fingers crossed).

Seekers are plain cool as well. Mounted daemonette cavalry with an extra attack has awesome written all over it.

Here's a couple of lists I came up with.

List 1:
10 seekers of Slaanesh (170 points)
1 fiend of Slaanesh (30 points)

List 2:
2 fiends of Slaanesh (60 points)
10 daemonettes of Slaanesh (140 points)

I'd prefer the first one, but I can't afford the models! In terms of special rules, the Slaaneshi force isn't short of movement, but could do with some staying power (feel no pain) in general.

Causing TOO MANY wounds?!

Today, I'd like to take a moment to talk about an issue that might affect a number of people's games. That is the issue of causing too many wounds in melee.

What? Causing too many wounds! Are you serious?

Why yes. Here's a situation that has happened to me, not once, but twice over this past year. Your opponent is fielding space marines or chaos space marines -- all with a 3+ save. On the other hand, you and I are fielding chaos daemons (example army list here). To be more precise, I'm going to talk about a squad daemonettes in particular, as this is the context that it happened in. Although I've talked about the relative merits of daemonettes before, the key to this particular situation is to note that daemonettes have the rending special ability and can therefore by-pass the marine's 3+ save with some fortuitous die rolling.

After having a lot (well ... a round or two, at any rate) of hand-to-hand combat, there are only a few miniatures left on both sides. Let's suppose that the opponent has two marines left, and the daemon player has several daemonettes remaining.

If our daemonettes manage to hit the marines a few times and then go on to cause 2 rending wounds, then there is assuredly only 1 possible result: 2 marine casualties.

But consider this. If our daemonettes cause an additional "normal" wound, then the two marines can allocate the wounds how they like. Unless my opponents and I have completely mis-read the hand-to-hand combat rules, the sensible opponent should allocate 2 rending wounds to one model (meaning 1 automatically dead marine) and the "normal" wound to the second marine. Chances are that the second marine will then make his ordinary 3+ save and survive. Hence by causing more wounds, we have placed ourselves in a worse situation than would have happened if we had only caused 2 full rending wounds....!

So as a chaos daemons player, I now tend to take daemonettes in slighter larger squads than I have been doing. If I'm going to cause more wounds than required, then I want to make sure that I cause many, many, many more wounds than are required rather than just a pesky extra wound or two. Perhaps a longer term solution would be for the next core rules re-write to explicitly talk of allocating "no-save" wounds before other wounds? (Although I'd be totally impressed if a GW staff writer was reading this and took notice!)

Purple Daemonette

This daemonette follows a purple colour scheme that was commenced with a basecoat of hormagaunt purple followed by liberal inking in a blended purple and black ink. The flesh areas were then shaded progressively lighter to an almost grey colour -- this can be seen clearly on the forehead region which really doesn't look as purple as the bulk of the rest of the miniature.

The clothes were basecoated in goblin green and inked a deep green colour in the recesses of the folds, before highlighting back to a tone lighter than goblin green on the raised portions. The green gives a jagged contrast to the purple tones of the flesh (not quite as bad as blue and green!) but still suitable for a daemonette of Slaanesh. The armoured portions were based around boltgun metal silvers and highlighted to skull white levels around the rim. The lining of the skull white is probably a bit too thick; I need to get a new fine detail 000 paint brush. The final details included adding dots to the eyes and completing the claws in a two-toned cream and white combination.

The base of the miniature is simply plasticard cut in to a regular shape and painted up to look like a street scene.

The Girl with the Blue Hair

A little addition to my daemonettes today: a girl with blue hair and some work on converting a base.

The miniature is a standard plastic daemonette, but on the base, I placed her on top of a wrecked rhino door (painted in a dull green colour) alongside some general detritus: a wire mesh and a loop of twisted florist wire. The base gives a wrecked city feeling to the daemonette that offsets from the blue of the hair.

Painting the daemonette began with the exposed flesh regions: base coating in a light brown colour, inking in chestnut and then steadily working the colour up toward a more bleached bone plus denheb stone mix highlight. With the flesh painted, I tackled the clothing and hair next -- this time choosing blue as the contrast colour. After inking the recesses in a dark blue stain, I gently drybrushed the vestments with silver to suggest a shiny corset. The hair on the other hand was painted up to space wolf grey using steady highlights.

The fine details were painted on last: including the white eyes and the tattoos on the right thigh and Slaanesh symbol on the forehead. Overall, I'm pleased with the outcome of both the paint work and the base on which the miniature is situated. The daemon is really offset well by the base in this case with the contrasting colours doing all the work for me.

Some Assorted Thoughts on Daemonettes of Slaanesh

Daemonettes of Slaanesh have some awesome plastic models and historic metal miniatures to represent them on the Warhammer 40,000 battlefield. Having played a good few games with them in a mixed Codex: Daemons army list, I felt it was time to have a look at what tactics generally worked for me and what didn't.

A Matter of Scale.
In my experience, Codex: Daemons is a matter of scale when playing mixed daemons. What works at a low points value may not be so effective at a large points value (and vice-versa).

In that regard, I've only been tempted to play daemonettes of Slannesh at larger points values in mixed daemons armies. In mono-Slaanesh armies, they will (of course) have to be there since they are the core troops. At lower points values, I find that daemonettes are not so worth while in mixed armies. Why?

The main problem with daemonettes is their general frailness to points value ratio. With toughness 3 and a 5+ save, they will be toasted by most armies. That, and coupled with the fact that they cost 14 points each; compare that points cost to a standard ork or chaos space marine and their overall frailness is obvious.

In larger armies (i.e. bigger points value games), daemonettes can be much more deadly. The principle reason for this is that any opposing general should be targetting other parts of the daemonic army in preference to daemonettes if they know what they're doing. Bloodletters of Khorne, Screamers of Tzeentch and Daemon Princes all seem to get prioritized over daemonettes for various reasons (e.g. hellblades; the ability to melta bomb tanks; simply being big and bad monstrous creatures respectively). Hence in a larger points value game, daemonettes can readily be over-looked. However, by not paying attention to them, the daemonettes can more readily get stuck in to their opposition.

Advantages of Daemonettes.
There are benefits to spending 14 points on a daemonette. Principle amongst them are the sheer number of attacks each (3 base; 4 on the charge), high initiative, rending attacks, fleet special rule and sheer other-worldly mind-altering beauty aura (variously known as Aura of Acquiescence, or assault and defensive grenades).

On top of that, they can take icons (probably not worth it outside of mono-Slaanesh armies); instruments of chaos (again, probably not worth while - see my previous discussion on this matter); and transfixing gaze.

Let's have a brief look at transfixing gaze. Mechanically, it reduces the number of attacks from an opponent in base-to-base contact with the daemon by one. This can be useful with a carefully positioned charge (e.g. against a power fist space marine) or against a monstrous creature / independent character. But otherwise might not be worthwhile. It is cheap though, so if you have the spare points and can't find another valuable place to spend them, then I think its better than spending the points on an instrument for the daemonettes.

An example combat.
A unit of 10 chaos space marines is facing off against 10 daemonettes (with transfixing gaze and an instrument - to make it equal points value).

The daemonettes have the charge (which they should always be aiming to have regardless given their fleet special rule). That means they have an impressive 40 attacks. Statistically, 20 of them will hit their mark.

Of the 20 hits, 3.33 will result in a rending wound and 3.33 ordinary wounds will be scored. That results in 4.44 dead chaos space marines on average (only a third of the chaos marines will fail their power armour 3+ save against the ordinary wounds).

The chaos marines now strike back at lower initiative. Each has two attacks apart from one of them in base-to-base contact with the transfixing gaze daemonette. That yields approximately 10 attacks back in total. That results in 6.67 hits and 4.44 wounds. About 1.5 daemonettes pass their saving throws which result in about 3 daemonettes fleeing back to the Immaterium. The daemonettes have won, but only by 1.44 wounds.

In the next round of combat, things get tougher for the daemonettes. They get a mere shadow of their previous number of attack: 21 from 7 surviving daemonettes. Of these, 10.5 will hit and 1.75 will rend alongside 1.75 ordinary wounds. That means there will be 2.33 more dead chaos space marines.

They're probably going to need some help in the next round to finish off these pesky chaos space marines in their shiny power armour.

Making best use of daemonettes.
Okay, daemonettes do very well in the first round of combat on the charge. No doubt about that. But later on, they will struggle as their numbers get whittled down very fast. So the first rule of thumb that I discovered about using daemonettes is that they need to be supported or they should be the support unit of something else. Bloodletters of Khorne spring to mind - they make a remarkably good tag team together regardless of whether the daemonettes get stuck in first (the most likely scenario) or the bloodletters do.

Heralds of Slaanesh can also help out somewhat, but are expensive (compared to the sheer number of attacks you could have purchased for the same points value of daemonettes).

Depending on the exact points value of the game that is being played, having large squads of daemonettes can be a boon or a draw-back. The boon is that they really optimize the first turn number of attacks they get (especially when charging). The draw back to a large squad size is that they get more noticeable and are more likely to be targeted. In a number of my army lists, I've tried running a single unit of about 10 daemonettes to provide extra support for other units (bloodletters and plaguebearers). They've been deadly when deployed as the bloodletters usually come in for the rapid fire bolters rather than the daemonettes. Opponents are often surprised by 4 rending attacks by charging daemonettes.

Daemonettes also have to make the most of cover saves and terrain to make them more survivable. Deep strike nearby to cover. Use turn 1 to run in to (or behind of line of sight blocking) cover. And then use said cover to get in to combat as quickly as possible on the next turn. Either that, or hide behind a bunch of (cover save providing) bloodletters.

Tank Busting?
I should note that daemonettes can also be used for a little bit of light-tank busting in a pinch. But this should only be attempted if desperate and there are still a good number of daemonettes in a squad since they only have strength=3. Here's an example:

Ten daemonettes charge a rhino (rear armour value=10) that moved in the previous turn. Of their 40 attacks, 20 will hit. Out of these hits, only armour penetration rolls of a 6 will have any effect -- there will be 3.33 of these. Thanks to rending, these 3.33 hits add an extra d3 to their armour penetration value. That means there will be an average of 1.11 glancing hits and 2.22 penetrating hits from the 40 attack! I'll let you figure out if you think that result is worthwhile or not. It might work out well!

A Small Nod to Planetstrike.
With planetstrike, I think I've also rediscovered a new love of daemonettes. With a fortunate deep strike in followed by an assault, these daemons are looking wickedly good, first-choice first-wave troops.

Daemonette with Large Claws, Painted in Blue

++ I like the way you move backward. Is it that you won't take your eyes off me, or the knowledge that you created me? We're very alike, you and I... ++
Reported heresy of a daemon; analysis from Iybraesil datavault raid by Inquisitor Thrax.
Painting.
This model is a standard plastic daemonette, mounted on plasticard with an Hirst Arts cast of a marble visage lying in ruins at the daemonette's feet.

The undercoat was done in black, followed basecoating in ultramarine blue for the garments and brown for the skin regions. A combination of inks and washes were used to give the model depth, followed by drybrushing of the skin.

The claws were highlighted in steadily lighter shades of blue until almost pure skull white in some prominent parts. The vestments on the other hand weren't given too many highlights -- indeed, some of the edging of the corsetry is a tad too thick for my liking (but that's correctable).

However, I did manage to get several very small details done with a fine triple-zero brush; such as the bobble holding the daemonette's hair in a bunch at the top of the head. A fine addition to my growing flock (is flock the right word?) of fully painted daemonettes.

Yet More Daemonettes

An update on my Daemonettes of Slaanesh today.
I've painted a couple more daemonettes and placed them alongside the original two I had done up (far left and far right). As can be seen, I've been experimenting with different skin tones and highlighting as well as contrasting colours for the corsets and other clothing. Whilst I'm not so keen on the grey one myself (edit: but perhaps the Tau are?), I'm thinking that the range of colours presented in the unit is not a great issue for daemonettes - they still look like a cohesive unit of dangerous daemons out to cause mayhem in an unsuspecting town.

Another Daemonette, Another Palette

Today, another daemonette of Slaanesh to add to the previous one. This time, the flesh colour is a shade of brown rather than the more unnatural orange of the previous daemonette. Yet the garments have retained the blue and gold scheme. I still haven't quite got the hang of painting these daemonette models too well: the claws are especially giving me much grief. Should they be in a different colour to the flesh, or the same colour? I can't decide on the whole.

This model used nearly the same painting procedure as before, apart from the skin where the palette is simply a different choice. There are no tattoos on this model, it is just as is. I'm reasonably happy with this miniature, but I am going to continue my quest for a colour scheme that looks good, that I'm happy with, and is different to the purple-and-pale-purple exhibited in the codex. I'm sensing that I'll end up with a squad of daemonettes all in different colour schemes at this rate. That might not be such a bad outcome overall, however!

The base deserves a quick mention here as well. It is plasticard glued on top of a regular circular base with a small amount of industrial-looking rubbish (sand and off-clippings of plastic sprues) glued to one edge. The yellow tiles are suggestive of an urban setting. Traffic markings perhaps, or a daemon-wrecked discotheque!