Overall, it's an interesting design, but a bit clunky. It would make for an unwieldy side arm. The original hero was made from a milled base. I had an opportunity to see one in person at a prop party, and realized that they are very well made. It is entirely custom built, save for a couple cap head screws here and there.
Building this piece up proved to be very problematic. I think one of the main blockades was simple patience. I lacked it. Many of the pieces had tons of detail that I wanted to perfect. For example, the vents on the main cowling had a lot of pits and air bubbles in them that I wanted filled and sanded. This took a lot of time. The kit I had was also not perfect. Some pitting, and pour sprues that needed to be dealt with. Painting was also a big pain. I used Plasti-Kote black as the base, and a dark Krylon gray as the base. I don’t recall the color I used off the top of my head. However, I did not use screen accurate colors. By the time I got around to painting this, I was so fed up with the project that I just wanted it finished. I grabbed the best match I could find.
Overall, I think the piece photographs very nice. In person, you’ll notice a bunch of boogers here and there, but oh well.