The yokes look good. Still gives you the x/y axis for that "Pull UP, Pull UP!" scene.

Fruit cups huh? Gonna have to remember that.

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Thanks, pluv. I'd ordinarily have gone with something more like a fighter jet configuration, but it's pretty consistently shown to have yokes, so......

Here's a couple WIP shots of the rear cockpit wall. After I established the size and shape of the wall, I started sketching ideas of where the seams would be. Then I scribed them using a scribing tool. Next, I raided my parts boxes for all kinds of details to add to the wall. The trick is to make everything look like it's supposed to be there. There's parts from engine blocks, Apache helicopters, semi trucks, stock cars, and Gundam-style robot kits in there. There's also a scuba tank from a Corps! diver, and a Star Corps! tricorder kind of thing. Once I was happy with the layout I glued everything down. Then I added styrene rod of various sizes to indicate cables.

Eventually, this will all be sprayed flat black, and I'll drybrush various shades of grey, silver, and tan to bring out the detail.

I get why and where you're coming from on the ultimate paint selection...yet...something about the way you have it laid out there already - mismatched colors and all - looks good. I actually thought it was detail painted on purpose at first glance, and I liked it.

Just for whatever that is worth.

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Thanks, drbindy. That tells me I'm on the right track with the overall design of the wall.

The idea is to try to capture some of the feel of the comics ship. In the books the interior is pretty bland, probably to make the characters' costumes pop out on the page. In the John Buscema Avengers panels I've saved the interior looks mostly black. Of course, that can also be a result of Tom Palmer's inks, but since the exterior is mostly white/silver it stands to reason the interior would be dark. And hey, it keeps people from pegging the source of the parts right off the bat!

Up until now I have always used scrap toys and melded them together for my custom vehicles but recently I have started playing with styrene.

You use alot of Styrene so my question ---Is there a good trick or way to make bolt heads along the seams. The only idea I have so far is getting a real small dow and cut minute pieces off of it and glue them on all along the seam but this seems very very tedious and was hoping someone might know a better way.

There's a few ways, to do this. They make punch wheels specifically designed to create rivet head detail in thin styrene. You could get one of those, emboss strips of thin sheet, and glue that in place. The largest ones available might still be a little small for Joe scale.

the little brass brads they use to hold hinges in place on dollhouse furniture have heads that are the perfect size for rivets. But, you'd have to drill a hole everyplace you want a rivet, glue the brad in, and cut off the sharp end. Actually works better if you cut it down before you glue it in place, but it makes it a lot harder to handle the thing. This can easily turn tedious.

They actually make water slide rivet decals. They're molded plastic rivet heads, bonded to decal film. You cut a long strip of them, dunk them in water, slide them off the backing and put them in place. I have no idea what the largest scale they make is, or if they come big enough to look right on Joe equipment.

You can also try putting a dot of glue where you want a rivet, and letting it dry. The big problem with this is that it becomes very hard to keep them all consistent looking.

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Greyrider's right. There's a lot of ways to do it, it all depends on your skill level and how much you're willing to spend. The pounce wheel idea has its advantages, but I've never been real successful at getting them to show up under paint/primer. The glue approach is really hard to make consistent, and some glues flatten out as they dry, so instead of small hemispherical dots you get small flat dots. The pin approach is too tedious for my tastes.

The waterslide decal approach yields the best results, hands down. They come in a variety of sizes and spacings, and the film disappears under paint/primer. However, I'm too damn cheap to buy it. The earliest sets I saw were $20 each, and while you got a lot of rivets I didn't feel I'd use enough of them to justify the cost.

I will have to look into the water slide. That seems like the only real solution and I would use plenty.

Here's the aft panel in process. The process was the same used to generate the rear cockpit wall. After getting the panel in the proper shape, I cut out openings for the engines and started laying out the various kit bits used for detailing. Sharp-eyed readers will spot suspension and engine parts from various 1/24 Ferrari and Corvette kits, as well as some pieces from Darth Vader's TIE Fighter, a Gundam robot, and some stuff I have no idea where it came from. Finally, here's the panel after being sprayed flat black and drybrushed various colors to pick out detail.

Looks really cool.

Oh, Badness.

That's a hot ass.

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I like the aft wall in black but I think you should keep at least some of the chrome on the interior wall.

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This totally seems like how they used to put together old Joe vehicles. It goes from "wall with stuff glued on" to "80's vehicle!" Awesome.

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Pluv: You may be right. Here's a pic of the dry-brushed rear wall. I may have to lighten things up a bit.

Macrossmaster: Yeah, I was shocked when I looked at my Defiant gantry and realized the rear wall was pretty much two complete sprues from the Young Astronauts shuttle kit.

AV and Husker85: Thanks, guys. I'm getting psyched about putting the side consoles together, hopefully this weekend. Of course, I suppose I really should roll the tubes for the engine exhausts first, so I can assemble the rear wall and have that ready to go.