Painting Challenge - Progress Report #1

I was talking to Corey on MSN talking about painting the farseer up when he mentioned he was thinking of painting the same model. I didn't realize he had the same old Farseer as I did:

I was struck with inspiration and right then and there challenged him to a painting duel. We both have until the end of November to paint the same model and then have them judged on Deep Space. First though, I quickly finished the Support platform Shadow Weaver and crew:

Then this past weekend I dove in on Farseer Ianthus. I wanted pretty much the same colour scheme as before that matches the psykers of my craftworld: red and black with ivory white for the wraithbone rune armour, but I wanted to do a much better job than last time I painted him over 5 years ago at least. So I mapped out the main colours on Saturday and on Sunday I started applying the highlights to make sure the idea in my head is going to work out.

Front (with flash and without):
 

Rear:
 

This is very early in the process and there is not one part of the model that can be considered complete, so don't fret over the mistakes you see. There are only two areas I am concerned over at the moment: the Ghost Helm and the sword hilt. I have some ideas about what to do with the Helm, but I am almost completely lost on what colours to do the hilt in. Any ideas would be welcome.