The method and colours I used to paint my Melusai for Daughters of Khaine

Basecoats

1. Start with a Corax White spray all over.
2. Paint the underbelly with Flesh Tearers Red mixed 2:1 with Contrast Medium . Apply two coats - this is for control to stop the patchy finish on bigger areas.
3. Paint the scales with Terradon Turquoise and Contrast Medium , again 2:1. Work quickly, but don't allow this to pool massively as it will obscure detail.
4. Paint the scales again, but with Black Templar and Contrast Medium . Again, 2:1. I did two coats of this as above.

Shading

1. Apply a mix of Nuln Oil and Nuln Oil Gloss over all of the scales and underbelly. This is roughly 1:1, and gives the scales a satin finish.

Highlights - red

1. Glaze Mephiston Red towards the top of each underbelly panel, thick line edge the top edge and any higher points (side of the panels, and sometimes there are some raised bumps mid-panel)
2. Glaze Evil Sunz Scarlet in a thinner line inside of the Mephiston Red : layer, adding a thin edge highlight as above.
3. Add a larger "dot highlight" of Wild Rider Red in the corners of panels, most raised areas.
4. Add a final single dot of Fire Dragon Bright

Highlights - black

The Contrast layers earlier were designed to replicated the green-blue highlights of my Black Legion highlights, which normally has Incubi Darkness over Chaos Black . The following method is a shortened down version of this. I didn't edge highlight each scale, as I attempted to finish the model quickly, but I would apply the same method and take longer on character models. Instead, focus on large scales, the front scales by the underbelly, and use thin lines that follow the curve of the model to suggest a shiny body as it curves.

1. I started with a thicker edge highlight of Thunderhawk Blue on prominent scales, the tail spike etc. The paint should be thin so it has a degree of transparency.
2. Within the Thunderhawk Blue , apply a thinner line of Russ Grey , leaving a line of Thunderhawk Blue
3. Add a final dot highlight of Fenrisian Grey
4. At this point, if you were highlighting individual scales, the next level of detail would be instead to do a fine line of Fenrisian, and dot instead with Blue Horror . Finish with an all over coating of Contrast Medium with a dot of Terradon Turquoise in it. I did not do this on the Melusai pictured.