Little things make a big difference.

The 3 day weekend was nice and I made some good progress. I feel like I've got a good workflow now and things are progressing faster. I'm still focusing on steps where the parts are from similar sprue trees and where modifications for accuracy/lighting may not be necessary...yet.
You can see what used to be a bare upper hull is now transforming into the hunk of junk we all know and love. There are so many little parts on there. Photographs just can't relate how impressive the level of detail is in 3D.Rob mentioned (on the RPF) that he also had difficulty removing some of the smaller parts from the trees. The right tools will definately make working on this kit easier. So here's a quick overview of what I consider some of the most important ones:
Xuron sprue snips for removing parts from their trees. Plastruct Plastic Weld is the adhesive I mentioned in a previous post. It is low viscocity and evaporates very quickly. A Hi-Liter helps track progress within a given step. There are so many tiny parts and numbers flying around each step that it helps to cross them off as you go. An X-acto knife with lots of sharp new blades. Finally, some tweezers for holding parts that your fingers just cannot handle.