Finished: LASER Networked Slaving Hierarchical Autonomous Reconnaissance Killbot–LASER SHARK
LASER SHARK is my second entry in the Sci-Fi and Alternate History Campaign X. You can see more pictures of the finished model in that discussion.
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My 8.5 month losing streak is finally broken. 
LASER SHARK is my second completed plastic scratch building project (of perhaps 10 started). While the model has some serious problems and did not turn out as hoped, I did learn a lot building and painting it.
Some lessons learned:
- It is very easy to completely ruin a black paint scheme through excessive use of airbrushed post shading.
- Spraying Vallejo White is utterly hopeless.
- Vallejo White has excellent brush painting coverage.
- A lens created with paint tricks is no substitute for a lens created with clear plastic.
- Leg components must have very strong attachment points to one another with large contact surfaces. Weak legs are like aircraft landing gear struts–they break with frightening ease.
- Complex camouflage schemes painted over a forest of little parts is near impossible. When building something super complex, plan for a simple paint scheme. The more complex the paint scheme, the more things that will break.
- Executing complex paint effects on a complex surface is hellish.
On to the next project…