Your build is coming along nicely Tony. I had the same issue trying to decide about the convoy marker, especially since I did not know if the light was only suposed to come out the little hole in the PE part or illuminate the whole marker (I still dont, but I thinkI figured it out now and did it wrong, oops).

As for photography, if you are very new to it, there is a lot to learn to get the best pictures you can. You have received lots of great advice above. One thing I wojuld add is that it is not always about the tool. A good photographer can take a mediocre tool and still make great pictures, but a mediocre photographer will not necessarily take great pictures with a professional digital SLR. Skill trumps technology here. I have a Nikon D300 and the wife has a Canon Powershot D9 (used to be mine). While the D300 is a vastly more capable camera, outdoors in good light, the Poweshot can take excellent pictures that I would be happy to print up to 8 x 10. Even though it is a P&S, it has a full complement of manual controls, which I think should be a requirement for anyone who wants to get the most out of their pictures. If your Nikon does not have any manual controls, I agree you should return it and get a camera that does. There are lots of great P&S cameras out there with manual controls. The advice of looking at dpreview is good advice. Just don't bother with their forums, unless you want PC vs. Apple arguments in photo form.

Back to the topic at hand. My Leo came to life yesterday. What an awesome feeling it was to see that imposing shape crawl around my living room, picking of my kids one by one. I will finally post some pics of it when I get back from a business trip later this week. It won't compare to the work done by the artists here, but I am happy for my first attempt.

I am looking forward to more pictures Tony (mostly to see what I could have done better).

Steve