Simple Conversion Start to Finish

Ho!
Inspiration abound as of late, I thought I would share a project that was one that involved some simple conversion work, some simple freehand and some better than expected results.

This was from my Traitor Guard days and when the army was really in full swing and my paint scheme was well established, I was doing multiple vehicles over a weekend. Thus, I was wheeling and dealing on Craigslist and Ebay to pick up more Guard firepower.
When another Valkyrie kit made its way into my hands, I got a little bold and started sketching.
I love the Chaos star. A big, bold Chaos star to me is the perfect identifying marker on my tanks and planes to state right out: I'm a bad guy.
This is what I came up with. My previous plane, a Vendetta, had a pretty big Chaos star over one wing and I was happy with the results. So why not bigger? A dude at the local game store had (it may have even been Vinton before I knew him) a great looking grey Imperial Guard that had Vendettas with the Aquila wings on each wing. This here would be the anti-Aquila.

I chose to go with a Valkyrie set up because, well, it would give a little contrast modeled and missiles/heavy bolters look cool. As far as other choices, I took one of my wife's broken bead necklaces to use for some gnarly looking chains. A little clipping here and there, I had cool hooks and skulls hanging off of the wings and fuselage.

Other standard fare Chaos-y conversions just fell into place, including the filed down defiler mask on the front, the simple multi-laser barrel and undermounted heavy bolters. I decided during building that I was going to paint my glass as opposed to leaving it clear.

Another thing to note is that I didn't go with spikes. My Vendetta was very spikey. This would be very chainy instead.

I primed, washed and dry brushed a few vehicles at once.

Next, the basic painting. I hit all of the metal with my grey/wash technique, and highlighted more of my basecoat. Then the free-hand star. I made a basic circle with a pencil and a roll of tape (for the circle, not the tape). I then followed a simple tutorial from BoLS and my star was taking shape. I wanted it to look like when the Guard unit decided to give up the Emperor, they started painting on evil shit. This looked painted on. Now to make it look weathered.

The weathering involved me using the same color as the basecoat applied with a sponge, kind of blotting it on. I also applied multiple dark washes over the red to get it looking beat up.
After the star was sufficiently weathered, I went and finished up the last of the details and went to work on the cockpit.

With a little more experience and a more patient hand, I think I could have achieved a smoother appearance on the cockpit. Next time I think I'll thin my paints a little more and wet-blend them together to get the look I envisioned.

The army shot with the completed Valkyrie. I just love this army.

Thanks for looking guys! I hope that I have presented an obtainable conversion that could act as a source of inspiration to you in your future projects. Till next time!