So the day I posted this the company I work for announced they would be conducting layoffs. They finished the process near the end of the week and thankfully the cuts didn't include my team. For the moment gainful employment continues to be mine.
Stress levels have dropped sufficiently and thanks to a beautiful day out here in Washington I am back at the bench. Minor progress made.
A photo of the mess of parts I've started working on.
Started priming the missile arrays and the exhaust vents.
For the bell I am going to leave the inside black but will once again attemp a heat discolored steel for the outside. Similar to what I did for the space submarine. Going to attempt to make it a little stronger this time as the affect on the sub's engine was a little to subtle in my opinion.
I glued together the leg on the left before remembering the accordian joint on the inside is supposed to be a different color. There are challenges to painting the joint before assembly as well as after assembly. Haven't come to any conclusions as to what I'll do.
Most of the main body is assembled. Looking at it I am left wondering about several parts on it. Are they engine exhaust? Backup lights? Turn signals? These things are supposed to be protoculture powered so why would you need exhaust?
From the boxart the circled above look to be the pilots windows but the shape doesn't really lend itself to being painted as such. The windows stick out instead of being recessed. Possibly an engineering mistake.