Hello all,
Thanks for the comments and suggestions. Some of you had questions, so here's the scoop. Modeled in... Ray Dream Studio v5.5, all parts are free-form (spline) models.
The individual parts were then exported as obj files, mapped with UV Mapper, painted in CorelDraw and Corel PhotoPaint, then brought back into RayDream.
Due to RayDream's poor handling of bump maps, the next renders will be from Carrara Studio 1.1.
Modeling time was embarrassingly long, but educational.
I envisioned the craft as a two-seater with the cockpit configured exactly as described by Bluestone (you been peeking in my sketch book?), functioning as a surface-to-space fighter.
I'm in the process of re-modeling the wings so that they can fold up for easy storage.
Regarding battle damage, weathering and insignia; those will be changed/added when I come up with a specific scene for the model to appear in. The basic paint job was created as a vector graphic which allows for very easy modification.

Here's a question for the room. Can a model composed of several obj files, each with their own texturemap, be brought into Poser - and if so - is there a tutorial showing how to best prepare the model for that process?

Thanks all,
Jim Z. a.k.a. Julian Boolean