Adding blinking lights, magnetizing, converting and painting an Astra Militarum Valkyrie

Ride of the Valkyries starts playing in the background. 

Blinking lights

A friend gifted this contraption to me, from a children's blinking heel type shoe.

I simply added extra wire to extend the length.

Magnetized back door

I decided to place the switch/battery board inside the crew compartment, but I needed access to it. So I magnetized the back door.

The next problem, was how to actually open the door after the fact. There are no handles or hooks like on the tanks. So I drilled some holes and put in this flexible band (from a loaf of bread I think).

Add plenty of glue to hold it in place. Finally, I was afraid that the magnets will hold too powerfully, so I glued the other magnet behind a piece of plasticard.

Pilots conversion

I have these handy nun drivers, but substituting them for the pilots proved messy. I hacked at the pilot's lower body until it was almost totally cut out.

Then glue this piece and try to make due with the second pilot as-is. This proved to be a bad idea, and I later hacked that one out as well.

Magnetized side guns

Drill in 2mm magnets for the lascannon/multilaser. Place a 5mm magnet behind a piece of plasticard.

Magnetized wing missiles

Drill in 3mm magnets into the mounts. This means that the missile fins no longer fit inside, so cut them off and drill in 3mm magnets. For the large missile launcher, I actually left the bottom off until after this operation, then placed a blob of green stuff on the inside to secure the magnet before gluing on the bottom.

Assembly, part 1

Ready the subassemblies.

One LED comes out the front, and the other in a side piece that has a lamp-shaped bit. Drill through that. Drill through the front plate, then cover up with some plasticard. Apply green stuff or heavy gel on the other side to secure everything in place.

Magnetized door gunners

Nun heavy bolter gunners. I could have just glued them in, but I want to keep the sliding door, and just have them turn in when the doors are closed. Drill in 2mm magnets into the gunners and the floor. No great weight here.

Assembly, part 2

Realizing that the cables strewn around the gunners could cause complications, I decided on affixing them to the roof of the compartment. Use some green stuff to direct the cables upwards.

After gluing on the roof, turn the plane upside down and affix the cables to the roof using green stuff.

Assembly finished

And I also glued the flying stand to the base, after careful measurements and dryfits.

Priming

Prepare by wrapping the flying stand in painter's tape (also the LED board inside) and block the mounted LEDs using little blobs of white tac. Prime black.

Painting

Start on the wings. Freehand scroll/portrait on a black vehicle. Stupid raised panels break up the writing, it looks better in reality.

And now, for the coup-de-grace: Fabstodes nose art. Basecoat Heavy Brown. I could not find a reference picture of them lounging, so I looked up a model reference on Google. Draw it using Charred Brown.

Draw the Custodes helmet and plume.

Fill out the body Heavy Skintone. Draw exaggerated muscles using Charred Brown.

Highlight as medium skintone.

Sort of NMM gold by basecoating Heavy Goldbrown, then mixing with Charred Brown and White back and forth. The plume is basecoated Heavy Red, streaks drawn Bloody Red, then mix that with White for the highlights.

With the difficult (and interesting) part out of the way, I decided on not doing my usual weathered metal, as it doesn't really make sense on a plane. I did edge highlighting instead. This is probably the first and last time I do this on a GW made large model. Close in around the freehands with black before.

Other details:

• metallic parts
• Dark metal guns and landing gear
• Shiny gold aquila on the front
• Muzzle burn on the outside of the exhausts
• Muzzle burn (Contrast) on the inside of the exhausts

Paint the screens and buttons in the cockpit Silver, then apply gemstone and contrast paints over them.

Glue in the pilots. I pre-painted one, and left the other one grey, as I wasn't sure how she would fit.

She fit just fine, but her hands ended in unsightly stumps, so fill them out using green stuff.

Painting the pilots

In the habit and colors of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. Prime the green stuff Grey Seer.

Paint the headgear Apothecary White, highlight white.

Paint the habit Flesh Tearers Red, highlight Gory Red, then Bloody Red.

Paint the skin medium skintone, then eyes and Female face.

Cockpit assembly and painting

Pin the pieces of the cockpit to corks, then paint as the body of the plane.

Glue everything using Vallejo Heavy Gel, to avoid superglue fogging.

Basing

Add pavement on the base in bits and pieces, mainly because I had to avoid the flying stem.

Add other pieces, including this 3d printed bit. Fill out using terrain paste.

Spray black. Painting cobblestone (also on the rocks).

Rusty metal manhole, Traditional metal but covered in Militarum Green on the crate.

When drybrushing the cobblestone in the final step, also go over the skeleton for a sort of slapchop. Coat the bones Skeleton Horde. Coat the cap Ork Flesh. Snakebite Leather goggles. Then paint the lens Silver and Aethermatic Blue.

Paint the plasma gun Dark metal and Blue plasma coils

Finished!