Thanks for the kind words guys!
TMTP, I thought about an open cockpit with Victorian Era wood chair and delicate controls but wanted to show more metal. One thing I like about steam-powered equipment is how heavy it looks; I thought an open cockpit would lighten it too much. Also, painting a figure is a whole other ballgame for me, it could easily make or break a model. I understand I have to do a lot of rivets and am not sure of the method I want to use. I purchased some 1mm bearings but could easily see them popping out all the time, especially before paint. If you know of a good method, feel free to educate me. Any way I look at it it’ll be time consuming...but I don’t mind time consuming for good results.
It may sound funny but I’ve been experimenting with Mylar sequins to make my own rivets. Not the sequins themselves but the tiny dots that are left over after the center is punched out. If you buy a bag of sequins it always has a bunch of the dots too.

I lay the dots out on the sticky side of a Post-It, mix a small amount of slow-curing epoxy glue and using a sharp toothpick place a tiny drop on each sequin dot. It has the tendency to form and dry like a tiny lens and when painted looks like a rivet. Unpainted they make great indicators and lenses and can be made in many colors. They’re unbelievably small but actually a little large for this scale. I do plan on using them here and there to break up the uniformity.
Sharkdog, when the gunstock was in the state shown in pic 4 (above) I used heavy nail clippers to cut off the excess plastic around the edges. After that I mostly used the x-acto knife shown to scrape it to shape. It sounds time consuming but with a sharp knife went pretty quick. My Dremel had the tendency to melt the plastic and sandpaper didn’t give me the control I needed. Basically, I took my time and whittled on it like a piece of wood to get it to shape. Scraping it with the knife also leaves a grain-like finish which I may leave vice sanding it smooth prior to paint.
Atlas100, the teeth on top of the barrel were achieved using Evergreen corrugated sheet plastic. I’m not sure of the size because I don’t have the bag it came in. I cut a small strip perpendicular to the corrugation, a little larger than I needed and used Tamiya cement to glue it in place. When the piece was fully dry I laid the barrel on its side and sanded it on a flat surface to the desired thickness. If you look at the pic closely you can see the barrel it’s nothing more than tubing and sheet styrene glued together. I like to use superglue as a filler but have to be careful when sanding because the plastic is softer and tends to go away faster.
Thanks again guys, I’ll post updates as I have them.