WiP: Valkyrie, the "Metallica"

Painting 30 Imperial Guardsmen is proving to be a bit daunting, so I changed gears to get my Valkyrie ready to play. It will join his two Vendetta brothers and has been named, Metallica.
Painting the large IG vehicles is a bit different than how I am painting the foot soldiers, and I wanted to document the experience with all of you.

First I primed the Valk with Army Painter Army Green and then went over the model with GWF Gnarlac Green with a tank brush. There are only a few places on the plane that are colored different- Boltgun Metal on the 'metal' parts, Blood Red on the coupling hoses on the fuselage, and white 'kill' markings on the side of the nose. Long ago I decided to cover up the canopy- so it got black and metal paint as well.

Lastly, I placed painters (low tack) tape on the wings and using GWF Iyanden Darksun to paint the stripes on the wings.

Once all was dry decals were added where you see them. Make sure you follow this process when using decals (or learn to cry softly to yourself). Using paint-on gloss varnish to the area where the decals will sit and let it dry.  Then using water slide the decal onto the model in the usual fashion. Then using Microscale's Micro-Set, paint over the decal. When dried, use Microscale's Micro-Sol.  At this point, I stopped to let everything sit overnight. One further word on the decals. When using decals on Space Marine shoulder pads I then painted on and around the decal to get rid of the 'shine' and 'halo' seen with this process. However, in this model we'll deal with it another way. Once dry, the model needs a coat of Matte Spray. That is where we will start tomorrow.