Final touches consisted of the following.
Edge highlighting with a mix of two drops sea grey and one drop olive green. Really made all the softer edges around the legs. On softer edges it really helped define the shape. Most notable on the upper legs and the bottom parts of the missile pods.
Added exhaust soot stains to the inner rims of the front of the missile pods. Brushed on black pastels.
Did the same to the back of the missile pods in the areas around the exhaust bells. Question, do missiles leave soot stains? Regardless, this boot has soot stains from missiles.
Decided the all the square holes in the back where cooling exhaust vents so kept stains from that to minimum. Large volume of air moving in near something like a vent invariably leaves some sort of stain.
I had been planning on dirtying up the lower half of the bot real good but after just a few rust chips it just didn’t feel right to do more, and left it at that. For me it was evocative a used but well maintained machine.
One major mistake that stands out is the searchlight on the head. It suddenly became very apparent that I had forgotten to do the green preshade. In contrast to the rest of the bot that nearly pure shade of brown really stands out.
Final note. Painted the central pane of where the cockpit would have been black. Now it looks like it has a head. Before, it felt like the headless horseman was staring at me. Interesting how a strategically placed black square can change the feel of something.
Without further ado. The pics of the final work.
Final thoughts:
My goal was to create a model that was evocative the box art and I think I can call that a success.
Preshading with olive green under the buff/sandy yellow worked better than I expected and gave it a lot more character than any of my previous Robotech builds. Still need a lot more practice with that technique, but the results make this something worth pursuing.
Biggest challenge with this build was the alignment of the missile pod halves and lower legs was garbage. It require lots of sanding and filling and I was never able to get them completely eliminated (still can’t fill with putty worth a damn) but despite the challenge it didn’t distract to badly from the overall look of the finished model.
The original Macross is my favorite giant mecha subject. Maybe someday Gundam will find its way into my stash but for now Macross is king for me. 
