Latest bit of progress, first up, the pit.
I was going to go with shuttle type tiles for my re-entry heat shielding then decided to go with some new hi-tech coating instead. I used one of those textue coat spray cans for a bit of a futuristic look.
Here is a top view of it's current state.
A detail of the texture. Difficult to see in the photos, but after spraying the texture coat flat black, I rubbed graphite (pencil lead) over the textured surface and it gives it a really neat look.
I've only been able to work on this for a couple of hours each weekend and I'm running out of time so I'm going to try to get some work done in the evenings this week so i can make the deadline.