Paint on the Pact Sentinel, Fortress of Redemption

Happy holidays to everyone out there that celebrate them!  I managed to get some paint on my Sentinel driver recently.  Normally I say "if you can't reach it with a brush, you can't see it."  This was untrue with the Sentinel, so I left off the cockpit side and roll cage.  Now that the driver is mostly finished, what color should I paint the actual Sentinel?  I think red would wash out and obscure the detail.  I'm sorry almighty Khorne, but there is such thing as too much red.  I'm thinking either black or grey with red chaos stars ala Dave Taylor.  Any thoughts on the color scheme would be appreciated.

Front on. I added shoulderpads and a Maxmini head to the Sentinel driver body.

Left side. I plan on painting the fuel tanks and the exhaust rusty as can be. See my old flamer pics for reference (last pic after the link.)

Right side. He's looking a bit to the right and most of the weapons will be close to level with his line of sight. Seems to work nicely.

And an early Christmas present, the Fortress of Redemption. This thing is massive!

That's my Blood Pact Sentinel down there. See that missile silo?

It's as big as the Sentinel's base!

And now a piece of trivia for those of you who have read this far. I was looking at the detail on the tower of angels and though it seemed softer than the rest of the model. I speculated that GW tested out their new computer scanning cogitator to make this kit. Then I found this tiny little skull in my bits box. (Look at the center of the picture.) It's from the vampire counts skeletons and it looks awfully familiar.

Blood Pact Sentinel and Valkyrie

Needed a break from the usual suspects and so out came a graduation gift (Valkyrie) and a birthday gift (Sentinel).  Never happy with the kit in the box I found some alternate pilot heads in my bits box, built up Vendetta lascannons from landraider lascannons, changed the weapon mount and engine on the sentinel.  On to the pictures!

Here are the Valkyrie/Vendetta crewmen.  Heads from fantasy Brettonian Men-at-Arms, tubing from Dragonforge.  Hmm, I forgot to greenstuff a plug over the point where the tube attaches to their chest.

Modified Sentinel with plasma cannon.  Added imperial guard shoulderpads and a Maxmini head to the pilot, replaced the exausts with fuel tanks and added a muffler.

Here's a shot of the other side.  The muffler is a bit washed out but you get the idea.

Did you notice the weapon had changed in the last picture?  Here's a shot of the magnetized short autocannon.

Yes, I said magnetized.