Thanks, Will! Here are some details on my build.
The clear part near the top spike, I masked off the part that the light would come out from the beacon, and the flash makes it look white, as it should be. The mat like base, is a ground textured sheet I had in stock, painted black to look like the charred Venus surface.
No, build progress shot. I just get into the building, and hope to just finish it. The model is easy to build, and the seams are not bad. I did very little puttying as it did not need it.
The original movie was called Silent Star, and you can find a subtitled version on youtube. Just a little longer, not much different from the dubbed version.