Just 2 pushes left and right. It's for that there is a line middle top! (Arc is middle top of the box)
No Trim!
And as there is no "Multiple Push" without Plugin you are oblige to make twice!
Very interesting anecdote and eye-candy, thanks for sharing. The futuristic vehicle design also reminds me of Katsuhiro Otomo's brilliant Akira artwork.
The Hard Ops add-on is one of those Blender things I still need to check out. I've seen some pretty impressive videos by Jerry (a.k.a. MasterXeon) demonstrating it.
And I completely know what you mean regarding MoI being easy to pick up again after you haven't used it for a while. That's one of its great strengths.