As I mentioned in last weeks Painting Enforcers post we're gearing up to have some Deadzone games here at Mighty Ape HQ and I've chosen the Plague as my force to take on the Computer Gorilla's Enfor­cers.

The Plague have some of my favourite models in Deadzone, the hulking Stage 1A and the slightly less mutated but lightning fast Stage 2s.

I'm also quite a fan of the ‘Popeye’ style of the Stage 3s whose overdeveloped upper bodies make them look like they've been stocking up on Mutant Mass from our Fitness & Nutrition category

The Plague models have 2 main areas to paint, the muscles and the bone plates, and I wanted to go for a different colour scheme to the pink/red tones used in the Deadzone artwork. Instantly I thought of the Hulk and decided upon a mean, green skin tone and grabbed a few of the Stage 3 models to test it using a new technique.

Step One: Priming
Once the models were cleaned and assembled I primed them with Army Painter Necrotic Flesh Colour Primer which gave the light, sickly green I was looking for.

Step Two: Streaking Grime Wash
Having used the AK Interactive streaking products on a large number of vehicles I knew that they give great fading and colour transition effects and also flow really nicely along recessed details. So I thought why not try them out on as a wash on my plague troops!

I took the Dark Streaking Grime, added a little thinner and applied a wash across all the skin areas of the models.

Once that had around 5 minutes of so to dry I took a brush dampened with white spirit and tidied up the streaking grime by removing it from the highest areas of the muscles so that it blended into the recesses.
Step Three: Highlights

After a good 24 hours of drying time I then added some highlights using Vallejo Model Air Flesh Tone. The Model Air paints are quite thin, which make them perfect for gradual transitions up to the highlight just by using a few thin layers. I also used a little Electric Blue to highlight the bulging vein details.

Step Four: Bone Spines
The Stage 3 models don't have the large bony plates of the larger Plague troops but they do have a number of small bone spikes protruding from their backs and shoulders. I picked these out with some Ushabti Bone and highlighted the tips with some white.

Then I added a touch of Reikland Fleshshade,to give a raw, infected look to the skin around the bone protrusions.

With the skin and bone complete I quickly finished off the clothes, going for a denim overall and white t-shirt style and finished off the assault rifle as well.

Having completed my test models I'm quite happy with the experiment using this colour scheme and painting method and will roll it out across my whole Plague Faction Starter, adding a few more stages on the bone areas of the larger models.