OK Deadzone fans its time to look how to paint the larger Plague Models, including the massive Stage 1A.

In our last Deadzone blog I took you through my new method for painting the Plague Stage 3s in a “Hulk” style green scheme. For the larger Plague models the method is mostly the same, however you'll need to spend a little more time on the bone areas as they are more pronounced.

Step One: Priming and base coats

Once again the models were cleaned, assembled, and then primed with the Army Painter Necrotic Flesh. Then take some Ushabti Bone and base coat all the large bone plates, teeth and claws.

Step Two: Green Wash

With some thinned down AK Interactive Dark Streaking Grime I washed all the skin areas, taking care to avoid the bone plates. Then I tidied up any mistakes or overflow with a little white spirit.

Step Three: Washing the bone

Once the green wash had fully dried it was time to start adding some shading and definition to the bone. First up I carefully applied some Reikland Fleshshade into the recesses of the bone ares and along the edges where it mets the green skin.

Once this was dry I then added a wash of Agrax Earthshade just to the deepest recesses.

Step Four: Drybrushing and highlights

Drybrushing is a great way of adding texture and highlights to raised details, especially for the ridged backs of the Plague models, quickly and easily.

I took an older, larger flat brush, added a little Vallejo Off-White and wiped off most of the paint. Then I drew it backwards and forwards across the raised surfaces of the bone areas. For the larger flat areas and the claws I used a line highlight instead.

Then I repeated the process with a drybrush of white, focusing just on the highest raised areas. I also added some small white edge highlights to the tips of the spines, claws and ridges.

Finally I added some small highlights to the skin areas with Vallejo Model Air Flat Flesh.

Step Five: Basing

I decided on a very simple basing scheme for these models, as I wanted something which was quick and that would tie into the urban battlefield of Deadzone.

I glued a mix of fine sand and medium grade talus to the base with some PVA and then gave it a black base coat. Once that had dried I added two layers of drybrushing, light grey and white.

Later I'm planning on going back and adding some more details like spent shell cases and some weathering powders but for now they're ready for the table-top.

Coming Soon
With my force completed the next project is to finish off painting and building the scenery from the Deadzone boxed set, which I'm going to get cracking on this weekend. Then we'll be all set to begin our games here at Mighty Ape HQ.