I decided on balsa wood for the material of choice. I only planned on building the one model, so had no need to make moulds and fibre-glass copies. I cut the wood into sections and glued it together into an almost box section. Having recently built the 'Maximum Security Vehicle' from 'Captain Scarlet' in the same manner, this was almost deja-vu!

The 'box' section was carved to the basic shape of the Firefly.
 
The cabin section was also made into a separate balsa box section.

The most tedious part was yet to come…