How to Paint Age of Sigmar
Signature colour schemes and step-by-step recipes for every Age of Sigmar faction, each with an exact cross-brand paint recipe you can tweak in the generator.
Age of Sigmar gives you more room to be bold than 40k does. The setting is high fantasy rather than grimdark, so schemes tend toward brighter, more saturated colour, ornate gold, and ethereal effects - glowing weapons, translucent ghosts, magical energy. The three-step battle-ready method (basecoat, shade, highlight) still does most of the heavy lifting, but AoS is where contrast paints and glazes really shine, because so many units want smooth gradients or a wash of colour over bone, cloth and spectral flesh.
Big cavalry, monsters and centrepiece models are the norm, so it pays to have a scheme that scales from a rank-and-file trooper up to a dragon without becoming a chore. Metallics and gemstone effects carry a lot of AoS armies - a clean gold trim recipe and a quick two-step gem (a bright base with a gloss dot of highlight) will serve you across half the factions below.
Each guide gives the signature palette, the painting order, and the exact cross-brand paints to use, then hands off to the scheme generator so you can recolour the whole thing to build a custom warband.
Core paints
AoS schemes typically pair a strong armour or robe colour with lots of gold trim, a bone/parchment for scrolls and skulls, gemstone accents, and an ethereal glow colour for magical factions.
Age of Sigmar Factions
Blades of Khorne
Cities of Sigmar
Daughters of Khaine
Disciples of Tzeentch
Flesh-eater Courts
Fyreslayers
Gloomspite Gitz
Hedonites of Slaanesh
Helsmiths of Hashut
Idoneth Deepkin
Kharadron Overlords
Lumineth Realm-lords
Maggotkin of Nurgle
Nighthaunt
Ogor Mawtribes
Orruk Warclans
Ossiarch Bonereapers
Seraphon
Skaven
Slaves to Darkness
Sons of Behemat
Soulblight Gravelords
Stormcast Eternals
Sylvaneth
Signature Schemes at a Glance
- Blades of Khorne - Deep red plate, tarnished brass and honest gore
- Cities of Sigmar - Freeguild blue, honest steel and city heraldry
- Daughters of Khaine - Red, black and gold for the aelf witch-cult
- Disciples of Tzeentch - Shifting blue and pink, feathers and warpfire
- Flesh-eater Courts - Pale ghoul flesh, rust and delusions of chivalry
- Fyreslayers - Fiery crests, bronze and bare skin with ember glow
- Gloomspite Gitz - Moonclan grots, glowing moons and cave mushrooms
- Hedonites of Slaanesh - Lilac flesh, hot pink silks and mirror gold
- Helsmiths of Hashut - Blackened iron, burnished brass and molten glow
- Idoneth Deepkin - Sea-pale skin, turquoise armour and aetherquartz glow
- Kharadron Overlords - Brass, navy and aether-gold sky-duardin
- Lumineth Realm-lords - Clean white, gold and pastel cloth - elegant high aelves
- Maggotkin of Nurgle - Rotting flesh, rust and slime made easy with washes
- Nighthaunt - Ghostly, glowing spirits done fast with contrast paints
- Ogor Mawtribes - Ruddy hide, brass gutplates and rusted iron
- Orruk Warclans - Green hide, rusted plate and swamp-green poison
- Ossiarch Bonereapers - Sculpted bone, teal cloth and nadirite weapons
- Seraphon - Scaled skin, gold and celestial glow for the star-lizards
- Skaven - Mangy fur, rusty metal and glowing warpstone, done fast
- Slaves to Darkness - Cold dark plate, brass trim and deep red cloth
- Sons of Behemat - Weathered giant skin, scrap armour and huge bases
- Soulblight Gravelords - Old bone, rotting flesh and vampiric crimson
- Stormcast Eternals - Heroic gold armour with blue cloth, the Hammers of Sigmar look
- Sylvaneth - Bark, wood and autumn leaves with a magical glow
New to the hobby? Start with Age of Sigmar for Beginners. Or jump straight into the scheme generator to build a custom colour scheme with a full paint recipe.