Back to the details

As if my face was missing my nose

Now was the time to finally return the cockpit unit onto the airframe. This also let me to check that if the model was properly balanced now - yes it was. I didn't glue the viewport glass on yet, as I didn't want to risk ruining it at this point in the long process.

The landing gear

I simply brushed the landing gears first, then proceeded to the landing gear bays with the same colour. As the main colour I used the same dark grey I had prepped the shuttle to begin with (VMA 71123 USAF Dark Grey). After that had dried I heavily drybrushed the landing gears themselves with the lighter grey (VMA 71120 USAF Medum Grey).

The inner surfaces and the edges of the landing gear bay doors I painted and left dark grey. The outsides I'd later on revisit with the off-white to make sure they looked the way I had designed. The landing gear bays or the doors I didn't highlight at all with the lighter grey, my intention being giving contrast.

Lasergunnery

I spent a good while thinking of the frontside weaponry. Ultimately I decided that the laser guns would be mostly dark grey. First I painted the barrels of the rotating wing-mounted laser cannons, leaving the stems / bases as they were. The fixed, shoulder-mounted twin laser cannons I painted grey from under the shield plate.

They'd need some fixing later on, especially those remaining bits that were going to be off-white. I assumed that the twin cannons would need some fresh white applied, as I didn't leave anything untouched this time, just to make them a bit easier on the eyes (I felt that just leaving them sticking out, dark as night, might make them stand out too weirdly). The general plan was also to leave the dark grey bits that way, not adding any metallics on them at all, nor any lighter grey drybrushing.