I start with a sketch. I call these hope full sketches, because there is little hope that that what was drawn will actually resemble anything like it.

First thing I figured, was to make a platform for the cockpit and the brass plate that the wings were going to be attached to. I decided to go for the flat military look. Then I move on to the basic wings, cut out of 0.7mm copper. I lie them like that to see if I am happy with the proportion, because I basically have no reference to compare to.

The wing trim on the top is cut out of 1 mm brass sheet and then filed half round and sanded up to 1200 grit.

One of the things I do in a project like this is to finish all the components at the same level. So, I don't finish one section off completely and then start on another.
Like some painters who finish off a section of a painting, like an eye completely and then go to the mouth. I find that fascinating but impossible to do myself.
It's time to start on the body. I want a segmented body, like as in the sketch.
I got the shape from an egg that I drew segments on. I made smaller ones just by drawing out smaller segments. The Dragonfly Fighter is getting direction.

I drew a sort of silhouette of the head shape that I wanted and cut two sections out of 1 mm brass.

Time to equally develop the cabin, tail and head of Dragonfly Fighter. I made some bottom sides for the sort of thorax and also place to join the legs to.
I closed up the front of the head and cut out a semi round holes in each head side. I made some disks and domed them and soldered them at a slight angle.
You know, like a bit of that binocular vision look that insects sometimes have.

I'm only going to make four legs on this alien craft, because of it being an aircraft and not a full insect. --- And even though it is semi sentient, it still remains an alien designed and manufactured aircraft of war.
I made some thorax joints, so then the legs needed body.

At this stage, I work a bit on the wings and the tail. I made some tail vanes. I needed some tail fins that fitted on the individual tail segments.

I liked the abdominal segments but I thought the space in between the fins was a bit boring. And here are the three tail segments completed each with their set of attack bugs.

The head swivel system. I wanted it to be a sort of hydraulic affair with a sort of brain/guide to interface with the pilot. I soldered the fluid control pipes to the central pilot interface. It is a central nervous system, which is the link between the body and the head, carrying out the commands of the pilot.

I added some sensor coils to the mandibles and also some reinforced hydraulic lines to compliment the gem based ones.

Now comes the time when the eyes have to be designed.
This is always difficult, because they are eyes, windows to the soul, or in this case, to the pilot interface unit. I'm not going to show every attempt, but eventually I arrived at this background, which I liked. These were blued from a cooler flame on the inside to a slightly hotter flame to the outside.
I liked the piercing look, like when the Dragonfly fighter is looking at you, he is giving you that piercing fiery blue eyed look.

It was at about this stage to start working on the cockpit. But first I made a combat chair for the pilot, which gave me scale basis to work with on the cockpit.

I wanted the cockpit to be removable so that the inside could be easily seen when the Dragon Fighter is on display. With many back and forth designs and after all was said and done, here is a picture of all the components prior to final assembly. All the spikes are threaded with a 2 mm thread and they screw into the cockpit frame through the hole drilled through the glass.

Then I was playing around with the alien pilot in the cockpit. I used the lost wax method to cast the body and carved the head in a beak-like shape. I decided to add another set of arms, because alien pilots are very skilled and the Dragon Fly fighter is very difficult to fly. 

Okay, so this is the fun stage, working on the decorations. I love making miniatures. The middle arm manipulates the landing gear and forward poison mandibles. The Gatling gun installed. Note the reinforced hydraulic control tube that is directly controlled by one of the middle arms of the alien pilot. I even made some jewelry for the alien pilot such as a bangle that contains communication devices to program the various entanglement functions of the Dragonfly Fighter.

Here is the final version of the cockpit and of the slide control of the Dragonfly fighter. It is engraved with a powerful alien script that casts an aura of protection over the whole fighter. 

Aaaand the final version of the brave Alien Pilot complete with blued titanium spikes.

Behind the pilots chair I made the wing control interface, which is also slaved to the central control stick. 

Dragonfly fighter ready for battle with Gattling guns loaded.

The Dragonfly Fighter is made with hundreds of individual parts with many intricate details. Here are a few parts before assembly. 

The display base for Dragonfly Fighter.