Thanks! Well, the cutscene is a long way off (I would need to learn making animations, to begin with!), I fear (not that I wouldn't like to do it!)...
Some random good and bad news: I just got my i7 core with 16 Gb RAM beast, did a couple of test renders and the speed is really satisfying
The bad news are: my actual jobs are keeping me very busy and tired, I don't have the energy to do 3d modelling when I'm home (I just need to unplug my brain), which is why I've not been very productive of late. I hope that can change by the end of the month.
As for the Highwind, that'd be an interesting challenge, I would like to give it a try (later, though). Besides, the completion of such a model would be necessary to make a bunch of scenes.
And if I ever happen to make really nice models, I'll have to see how I could submit these to 3d printing