Well guys, I have a little more time this weekend, so I am hoping to get the heatshield and outer shell finished...
I was going to do the forward observation windows next, but the shape of the openings are not quite right... so the next logical step was the outer shell - to develop the closeouts to fill the gaps between the crew compartment and outer shell.
Here is the start of the heatshield. The first picture is the intended color. It isn't really red!
There are probably dozens of methods one could use to grind out the crop circles and fill/sand paint; but this is a prototype; not worth the extra time spent. If the future builder assembles straight from the pages, this is what builder will get. The shape is now correct; much better than the original popcorn bowl I started out with...
Ken