A bit of progress, still need to work out the structure of the thorax and head, and there is more to be done to the legs. But its another step along the path.
Are you gonna form this one IRL with glass and metal parts?
Great bug. ! 
That is the plan. At this stage it is only concept and will require some thought. No intention of it functioning more than manually positioning the parts. Although even at this stage everything is solids and fits together, even the belt drive worm gear that moves the feet would work if 3d printed. If I changed the hydraulic rams for linear actuators it would all work as printable parts.
Post some pictures when you’re done! Sounds exciting.
Classic case of building something out of context only to find the error when brought together with the other parts. I constructed the ‘ring’ in a separate model instance thinking in terms of 8 legs. So 16 sides make a nice framework for attaching the legs. That works, until you realise you have left no space for the head or bum (technical name for the tail part of a spider).
D’oh, back to the drawing board.
Incredible work! Do you ever get annoyed at the lack of true curves in sketchup when doing this kind of project? What makes you prefer sketchup for this over anything else?
Far from it, I find the segmentation of curves a useful feature that allows you to specify the shape you want and align parts accordingly.
It is the only 3d software I have found that works correctly with my neural implant.
Keeps getting better !
Damit, I’ve been trying to make it worse!!!
It is still strangely wrong, the front legs, they are above the surface, and their shadows are correctly offscreen, but they still need something to anchor them. Arrrg
That’s what happens with bugs full of worms.
+1 for the artistic design!
That’s a novel way to get the feet to stand on a surface. I’ll have to change my floor to get my last homebuilt coffee table to stand ok. 
Is the texture in the tail part an actual bump map or is it just baked in as part of the texture?
Awesome modeling…
Thanks for sharing 