We played a scenario the other day that forced my army out of its ususal transports, Chimeras (Chugs) and into a Deep striking Flyer goodness mode.  I picked one Valkyrie/Vulture for the force as the Anti-Tank component, principally because I only have one Valkyrie model built.  I picked up a few forgeworld Resin models years ago, painted and assembled two of them and only one has survived the ravages of the gaming table.  So off to the table I went with one of the New Fifth Edition Vendettas in my army list.  And it Rocked!  It kicked A$$. It took names.
My Tau opposition didn't know what to fire at first, the Three twin linked Las Cannons on the Armour 12 Chassis Vendetta, Or the Three Bane Wolves bearing down on his army full of multi melta goodness!  Mmmm confusion in the enemys targeting computer, just what the doctor ordered!
So with the Banewolf's off and kicking Tau around the table top, a squadron of Vendettas seemed a good choice for the next Project.
 
Part 1: Planning
I'm gonna make me a squadron of three Valkyries.  These Valkyries will be operating with the Imperial Navy contingent on Praxedes IV.
Construction will include magnetising the hull and Wing hard points for quick swaps of weapon load outs .
To keep them stylistically the same as the Death Korps they will be painted in a Grey/Dark mottled scheme.  I'll be painitng with an airbrush and I have also found a series of painting guides for using an airbrush to paint a Messershimtt ME 109 in a very similar colour scheme to the one I have in mind, so I'll be following that series quite closely.
I hope to use the forgeworld decal sheets for detailing.


What are Valkyires?
What do we know?  as usual I'm going to start with a visit to the Librarium Lexicanum.  The Valkyrie is a heavily armed airborne armoured assault carrier with VTOL capabilities, used to ferry special forces infantry units such as Storm Trooper Squads and Drop Troop Regiments such as the Elysian Drop Troops to and from combat zones.
The craft has two door mounted Heavy Bolters for door gunners to operate. This combination of weapons allows Valkyrie pilots to stay on station once their cargo has been dropped and provide limited air-support to the troops on the ground. Valkyries carrying extra fuel are capable of carrying modified Drop Sentinel, Cyclops and Sentry Gun instead of troops. In most cases, the Valkyrie, like most of the Imperium's aircraft, is piloted and operated by the Imperial Navy, and are provided in joint operations for use to the Imperial Guard on a need basis.
The Primary modification is reinforced armor with extra armor added to that to reduce the chance of damage and force of heavy weapon impacts. This extra weight reduces the Valkyries max flight altitude and speed, but allows the crew to use it's VTOL capabilities to the maximum potential with improved survivability.

The Vendetta Heavy gunship are Valkyrie's which have been attached to Imperial Guard units and received the increased armor, and then equipped with 3 Twin-Linked Lascannons, and used as a tank hunter after dropping off any unit being transported by it. Further more, it still retains the ability to mount 2 Heavy Bolter door guns. It may also replace the 2 hardpoint mounted Twin-linked lascannons on its wings for 2 Hellfury incendiary missiles instead. 

There are ten known patterns being made by seven listed forgeworlds including Lucius, the forgeworld that produces the Number 98 pattern lasgun for the men of Krieg.  However the differences between the patterns are not known.

Some Images for reference and Ideas

• Passenger in the door
• Rear Hatch;
• A Forgeworld painted Inquisitors Valkyrie;
   
• A Masterwork.

At the Going down of the sun, and in the evening

We will remember them

11/11/1918 11:11

I was crusing through the Warp and came across the Banewolf done for the 14th Grand Company, a Chaos Traitor website.  This is an outstanding treatment of the tank, blood red with a good use of weathering, not too heavy, not too light.  What really caught my eye was the green bubble filled glass like tube. I was wondering how to do the chem nozzels on my Banewolves. Leaving metalic just seemed a bit boring.  This is most definately one answer.
At the moment the Banewolves are stored elsewhere so, this is more of an aide memior until I can get me, some paint and the Squadron in the asme place at the same time.

Cudos to the folks over at 14th Grand Comany for  a lovely BaneWolf!

I kinda sorta finished painting the Ragnarok a while ago.  I just never got around to Photographing the thing.  Mostly because I never got around to painting the stowage.  I painted it using the method described in the Forgeworld Masterclass book for the Artillery peice.
Anyhow, on friday I arrived too late for the game, so camera in hand I shot photos left right and center (But not stowage) of the Ragnarok.  So here it is, surrounded by Vostroyans from the CCCLII Firstborne:

1.0: Camo Base
Codex Grey and Battle grey in stripes

(At this point I chould have done some colour variation mapping)

2.0:  Campaign Marking Banners
Mask off the front left panel then Spray a white stripe White with Scab red pinstripe.
(I should have do new the chipping method with hairspray and sand grit.)

3.0: Decals
Red small eagles onto the bannersVehicle numbers; Ammo Storage; Krieg labels

4.0: Chipping using a sponge. 
4.1 For the Battle grey stripes, Sponge on codex grey chips across the stripes concentrating on the areas where the crew comes into contact with the hull. 
4.2 Then the darker, older chips are sponged on with a mix of 2:1 Scorched brown:Chaos Black. 
4.3 Using a brush, join some of the chips
together to make a larger chip.  Use Fortress grey to put a thin line below the larger chips to highlight them.  Helps create the illusion of peeling or worn paint.

5: Seal with matt spray

(At this point I should have done some selective Filteres with Acrylics to create rain streaks.

6: Rivet filters
6.1 Using Black Oil paints, tin it down with white spirit to a wash.  touch a wet brush to the rivet
head and let the surface tension carry it around the rivet.  Don't over do it.
6.2 wait for it to dry.

7.0: Hull Rust
Flick Mars Red or Rust Red oild paints onto the hull from an old dry brush.  Spray on White spirit to soften and difuse the rust.

8.0: The Tracks
I was going for well used dusty tracks. 
8.1 Paint the Tracks a mid-brown colour
8.2 Grind some Graphite and rub it onto the tracks to highlight with metalic.
8.3 Edge highlight with mithril silver
8.4 Go over the Rubber road pads with Vallejo German Panzer grey.
8.5 Dust on 'European dust' and 'Industrial dirt' and fix it by driping on white spirit.
8.6 When it dries dust off the excess.

9.0: Charing on the battle damage
Light airgun spray Chaos black on areas of battle damage

10:0 Stowage
I hate doing stowage.  Its one of the last things I do before weathering and I hate it

10: Pipes
Principally a weathering task.  Paint with oil paints in a patchy manner with different reds.  Dust on weathering powder and fix with white spirit, touched on and allowed to spread.

11: Stubber and Melta
11.2 grind some Graphite and rub it onto the tracks to highlight with metalic. 
11.3 Edge highlight with mithril silver

(I should have done somthing more here.  perhaps the brown through black sprays for the carbon scoring
on the muzzel would have been better).

12: Lenses
Painted using layering technique.  Starting with Chaos Black; Scab red; Blood red; Sunburst yellow.  Then a dot of white in the corner furthest away from the yellow highlight.

Tau gunline holds the outer perimeter of the prison.

Using Jascs Paintshop Pro version 8.0
1 Select the Glowing Bars
Open the basic Image.  Use free hand select tool to select the rods which will glow:

I did not select the very distant bars.

Promote Selection to Layer
Once the Selection was complete I Promoted the Selection to a new Raster Layer:

Setup the Core
Rename the new Layer to 'Core'.  Set the Colour Selector to the bright colour, I use an off white towards green.

With the new colour, select the paintbrush tool.  The Necron glass bars on the 'Core' Layer should still beselected.  So Select the Core Layer and Paint the new colour into the selection.


Dupicate the Core Layer two more times and set the colour to the Eerie Green Glow.
Selecting each Layer in turn: Paint each layers selections with the new colour.

Adjust the the Gaussian Blur
For each Layer, adjust the Gausian Blur from the tool bar.  I often have to play with the values but in general the 'Core' layer is the lowest blur and the upper layers are a higher blur number.