I then used the same technique to add louvers to the little gusset that goes between the waist and heat exchanger. Then I glued all three assemblies together.
Then I started work on the cockpit assembly, beginning with the lower part where the cockpit tub resides. After cutting out the headlights and mounting points for the sensor globes, I added chipboard to the interior of this part as usual, then cut out the sunken areas where the headlights would reside. I also cut out the wells for the main guns. I folded up most of the part, leaving off two panels so I could continue to work on it. I cut out two frame pieces for the inside, made from the spare side panels with material removed so it would fit inside the thick walls of the part and glued them in. Then I made two backing pieces for the headlight areas. After these were glued in, I folded up the rest of the part and glued that to the torso assembly.
The next area I would tackle would be the massive gun pods on either side of the head. To begin with, I backed the center part with chipboard, then folded it up and glued it together. Next I began adding chipboard to the backs of the gun pods themselves. I decided to cut off the bottom panel and attach it as a separate piece later to make painting easier. Speaking of which, after the pods were backed completely with chipboard, I painted them a mixture of black and burnt umber, then added chipboard to the back of the bottom piece. After this, I cut a notch out of the bottom section that matched the gun well locations in the torso, then after painting it black, I glued it to the bottom of the gun pods and set the whole assembly aside.
The next thing I worked on were the main gun wells. They would need to be sunken below the surface of the cockpit section, so the first thing I did was cut out the raised rim of the well and cut out the black section in the middle of it. This I backed with two layers of cardstock and then scored the back of the part in order for it to fold easier. I glued these into the gun wells, then I cut a piece of chipboard that was just tall enough to fit inside the gun pods and covered this with some leftover dark areas from spare parts. I glued this down at a 90 degree angle to the bottom of the gun well. Then I made side panels by taking cardstock and tracing out where it fell on the inside of the gun well and gun pod parts. After cutting them out and gluing them, I painted them near-black and then glued the gunpod assembly on top of it.
The next thing I did was take the spare gunpod pieces and start cutting out the extra details from that. I glued them down, and after the glue was dry I began sanding the edges flat.
