Hi David, yeah it tends to be difficult to do something like this in a little "piece by piece" way, it's just easier to get a smooth continuous looking form if you build it as one bigger thing. But that's just for the main body shape, things that stick out should be separate pieces booleaned on.

Another way you can approach a shape that is not very symmetrical and kind of organic is by drawing in several parallel plane curves and then using Construct > Loft with the "loose" option. For a closed spot, there is a new feature in v3 loft where you can put in a point object to close the end of the loft off smoothly, here are some things that show that way:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=6082.10
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=6082.8

Also there are some demo videos from Andrei on this thread:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=6058.1

The main thing that's different with that method though is that you are primarily controlling the shape through the cross sections, you have to adjust those to get the kind of profile you want while using sweep lets you draw in the side profile more directly.

But if you have a fairly difficult smooth shape, the organic loft method can sort of give you the most detailed control over it.

- Michael