Thanks everyone for the kind words!
The number one thing you need to build something this time-consuming is an understanding wife!
I designed most of this MOC on Ldraw before acquiring the pieces on Bricklink to complete the build. At 15,000 pieces though, I had to create several files (the program seems to run much slower when a file contains more than 7,500 pieces).
Some of my other creations can be found on Brickshelf.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=488641