ChuckD

Hi, everyone.  I guess it's time to get my membership card to the Kotare Klub as there seem to be about a million of these in the WIP forum right now. 
 
Since finishing my Corsair diorama, which took months, I wanted a quick, straight forward build as something of a palate cleanser.  My son said he thought it'd be neat if I did a Spitfire, I had the Kotare Mk Ia (mid) kit in the stash, I've never build a British aircraft before, and so, fate was decided.
 
I departed from my usual MO of recreating an historical photograph and decided to just do a fictional, but feasible scene.  I've wanted to depict battle damage on an aircraft since I was kid, but never really had the skills or practice till now.  So, being that this kit has a low parts count and went together really nicely, I decided it would be a good platform to try my hand at damage.  I thinned the interior plastic walls with a low rpm rotary tool, carefully punched and pried holes in the weakened area, then painted and streaked the area to look the part.
 
Aside from the rigging wire (EZ-line), figures (Black Dog Resin, out of the box), and the base (el cheapo panel board), the kit is presented out of the box.  I even used the decals in lieu of my usual gig of cutting masks and painting.  This experience reminded me that I'm way out of practice working with large decals, but after a few minor scares, they turned out okay.
 
This is a Spitfire Mk Ia of 610 Squadron sometime in the summer of 1940 before it was damaged beyond repair that August.
 
"Bit of a rough go today, eh, chap?"




 















 














 

Hi, everyone.  I guess it's time to get my membership card to the Kotare Klub as there seem to be about a million of these in the WIP forum right now. 
 
Since finishing my Corsair diorama, which took months, I wanted a quick, straight forward build as something of a palate cleanser.  My son said he thought it'd be neat if I did a Spitfire, I had the Kotare Mk Ia (mid) kit in the stash, I've never build a British aircraft before, and so, fate was decided.
 
I departed from my usual MO of recreating an historical photograph and decided to just do a fictional, but feasible scene.  I've wanted to depict battle damage on an aircraft since I was kid, but never really had the skills or practice till now.  So, being that this kit has a low parts count and went together really nicely, I decided it would be a good platform to try my hand at damage.  I thinned the interior plastic walls with a low rpm rotary tool, carefully punched and pried holes in the weakened area, then painted and streaked the area to look the part.
 
Aside from the rigging wire (EZ-line), figures (Black Dog Resin, out of the box), and the base (el cheapo panel board), the kit is presented out of the box.  I even used the decals in lieu of my usual gig of cutting masks and painting.  This experience reminded me that I'm way out of practice working with large decals, but after a few minor scares, they turned out okay.
 
This is a Spitfire Mk Ia of 610 Squadron sometime in the summer of 1940 before it was damaged beyond repair that August.
 
"Bit of a rough go today, eh, chap?"




 















 














 

Love it! I’m inspired to add pilots to my projects! 

Superb build!  The camo painting, weathering and battle damage are very well done.
 
Ernest

superb Chuck.

Hi, everyone.  I guess it's time to get my membership card to the Kotare Klub as there seem to be about a million of these in the WIP forum right now. 
 
Since finishing my Corsair diorama, which took months, I wanted a quick, straight forward build as something of a palate cleanser.  My son said he thought it'd be neat if I did a Spitfire, I had the Kotare Mk Ia (mid) kit in the stash, I've never build a British aircraft before, and so, fate was decided.
 
I departed from my usual MO of recreating an historical photograph and decided to just do a fictional, but feasible scene.  I've wanted to depict battle damage on an aircraft since I was kid, but never really had the skills or practice till now.  So, being that this kit has a low parts count and went together really nicely, I decided it would be a good platform to try my hand at damage.  I thinned the interior plastic walls with a low rpm rotary tool, carefully punched and pried holes in the weakened area, then painted and streaked the area to look the part.
 
Aside from the rigging wire (EZ-line), figures (Black Dog Resin, out of the box), and the base (el cheapo panel board), the kit is presented out of the box.  I even used the decals in lieu of my usual gig of cutting masks and painting.  This experience reminded me that I'm way out of practice working with large decals, but after a few minor scares, they turned out okay.
 
This is a Spitfire Mk Ia of 610 Squadron sometime in the summer of 1940 before it was damaged beyond repair that August.
 
"Bit of a rough go today, eh, chap?"




 















 














 

Nice work Chuck, I had the same fuselage fit issues as you and it was down to the internal bulkheads being oversize causing the problem.  Once I sanded them down a little the fuselage fit was very good. I'm thinking of doing the same with my wings and was wondering what the fit is like on the spar once those internal locators have been removed?
 
Regards. Andy 

Hi, everyone.  I guess it's time to get my membership card to the Kotare Klub as there seem to be about a million of these in the WIP forum right now. 
 
Since finishing my Corsair diorama, which took months, I wanted a quick, straight forward build as something of a palate cleanser.  My son said he thought it'd be neat if I did a Spitfire, I had the Kotare Mk Ia (mid) kit in the stash, I've never build a British aircraft before, and so, fate was decided.
 
I departed from my usual MO of recreating an historical photograph and decided to just do a fictional, but feasible scene.  I've wanted to depict battle damage on an aircraft since I was kid, but never really had the skills or practice till now.  So, being that this kit has a low parts count and went together really nicely, I decided it would be a good platform to try my hand at damage.  I thinned the interior plastic walls with a low rpm rotary tool, carefully punched and pried holes in the weakened area, then painted and streaked the area to look the part.
 
Aside from the rigging wire (EZ-line), figures (Black Dog Resin, out of the box), and the base (el cheapo panel board), the kit is presented out of the box.  I even used the decals in lieu of my usual gig of cutting masks and painting.  This experience reminded me that I'm way out of practice working with large decals, but after a few minor scares, they turned out okay.
 
This is a Spitfire Mk Ia of 610 Squadron sometime in the summer of 1940 before it was damaged beyond repair that August.
 
"Bit of a rough go today, eh, chap?"




 















 














 

Hi, everyone.  I guess it's time to get my membership card to the Kotare Klub as there seem to be about a million of these in the WIP forum right now. 
 
Since finishing my Corsair diorama, which took months, I wanted a quick, straight forward build as something of a palate cleanser.  My son said he thought it'd be neat if I did a Spitfire, I had the Kotare Mk Ia (mid) kit in the stash, I've never build a British aircraft before, and so, fate was decided.
 
I departed from my usual MO of recreating an historical photograph and decided to just do a fictional, but feasible scene.  I've wanted to depict battle damage on an aircraft since I was kid, but never really had the skills or practice till now.  So, being that this kit has a low parts count and went together really nicely, I decided it would be a good platform to try my hand at damage.  I thinned the interior plastic walls with a low rpm rotary tool, carefully punched and pried holes in the weakened area, then painted and streaked the area to look the part.
 
Aside from the rigging wire (EZ-line), figures (Black Dog Resin, out of the box), and the base (el cheapo panel board), the kit is presented out of the box.  I even used the decals in lieu of my usual gig of cutting masks and painting.  This experience reminded me that I'm way out of practice working with large decals, but after a few minor scares, they turned out okay.
 
This is a Spitfire Mk Ia of 610 Squadron sometime in the summer of 1940 before it was damaged beyond repair that August.
 
"Bit of a rough go today, eh, chap?"




 















 














 

Hi, everyone.  I guess it's time to get my membership card to the Kotare Klub as there seem to be about a million of these in the WIP forum right now. 
 
Since finishing my Corsair diorama, which took months, I wanted a quick, straight forward build as something of a palate cleanser.  My son said he thought it'd be neat if I did a Spitfire, I had the Kotare Mk Ia (mid) kit in the stash, I've never build a British aircraft before, and so, fate was decided.
 
I departed from my usual MO of recreating an historical photograph and decided to just do a fictional, but feasible scene.  I've wanted to depict battle damage on an aircraft since I was kid, but never really had the skills or practice till now.  So, being that this kit has a low parts count and went together really nicely, I decided it would be a good platform to try my hand at damage.  I thinned the interior plastic walls with a low rpm rotary tool, carefully punched and pried holes in the weakened area, then painted and streaked the area to look the part.
 
Aside from the rigging wire (EZ-line), figures (Black Dog Resin, out of the box), and the base (el cheapo panel board), the kit is presented out of the box.  I even used the decals in lieu of my usual gig of cutting masks and painting.  This experience reminded me that I'm way out of practice working with large decals, but after a few minor scares, they turned out okay.
 
This is a Spitfire Mk Ia of 610 Squadron sometime in the summer of 1940 before it was damaged beyond repair that August.
 
"Bit of a rough go today, eh, chap?"




 















 














 

Hi, everyone.  I guess it's time to get my membership card to the Kotare Klub as there seem to be about a million of these in the WIP forum right now. 
 
Since finishing my Corsair diorama, which took months, I wanted a quick, straight forward build as something of a palate cleanser.  My son said he thought it'd be neat if I did a Spitfire, I had the Kotare Mk Ia (mid) kit in the stash, I've never build a British aircraft before, and so, fate was decided.
 
I departed from my usual MO of recreating an historical photograph and decided to just do a fictional, but feasible scene.  I've wanted to depict battle damage on an aircraft since I was kid, but never really had the skills or practice till now.  So, being that this kit has a low parts count and went together really nicely, I decided it would be a good platform to try my hand at damage.  I thinned the interior plastic walls with a low rpm rotary tool, carefully punched and pried holes in the weakened area, then painted and streaked the area to look the part.
 
Aside from the rigging wire (EZ-line), figures (Black Dog Resin, out of the box), and the base (el cheapo panel board), the kit is presented out of the box.  I even used the decals in lieu of my usual gig of cutting masks and painting.  This experience reminded me that I'm way out of practice working with large decals, but after a few minor scares, they turned out okay.
 
This is a Spitfire Mk Ia of 610 Squadron sometime in the summer of 1940 before it was damaged beyond repair that August.
 
"Bit of a rough go today, eh, chap?"




 















 














 

Back with an update.  Progress has been slow but steady.
 
After hosing the interior down with a broad brush, I spent some time getting the Eduard cockpit and HGW seatbelts around.



 
I added just a little weight to the cockpit section with lead sheet.  This is something like a pound of weight.

 
The interior... given the size, this thing is difficult to photograph.


 
Ammo boxes-o-plenty.



 
A rough fitting of the fuse halves.  The fit wasn't great.  There's enough openings in the fuse to verify that all internal bulkheads were located correctly, but still there was a decent gap between the halves in the upper spine above the ball turret and another on the bottom between the bomb bay and nose wheel well.  Break out the super glue.

 
The canopy actually fits nicely.


 
The aforementioned upper gap.

 
The also aforementioned lower gap.



 
Glue applied!

 
Channeling my P-38G conversion from a year ago, it's time to slather on the super glue and sand things down.  Fortunately, Trumpeter's lackadaisical approach to panel lines means that there was not a ton of detail to worry about having to restore afterwards.

 
While the glue was curing, I moved on to the wings.  The gear bays are monstrous things.

 
Starting to look like a Liberator.

 
Here's something I'm not too thrilled about.  The instructions call for sandwiching the wing halves over the heavy spar piece then... I dunno... it looks like you're supposed to screw them together, but there's just so much wrong with that idea.  There are no screws included with the kit and assembling the wings in that manner would leave you no option than to try to paint this monster as a single, complete unit.  That ain't happening as there's no way to maneuver it around my paint bench when fully assembled.  Sooooo, these 4 studs gotta go.

 
Easy peasy... the wings now slide on without trouble.

 
The wings with control surfaces.  I had to sand down the hinges for all the control surfaces because they were too wide and interfered with the control surfaces themselves.  Annoying, but not a show stopper.

 
Once nacelle installed before running out of steam today.  The fuse halves are filled and looking good, now I just need to do a bit of rescribing.

 
This thing is a monster.  I gotta say though, aside from its overall size, it's not a very inspiring kit.  Everything is big, chunky, and heavy.  There's very little in the way of small details - everything is big and chunky.  Ah well, there's no other show in town, so we'll make the best of what we've got. 

Hi, everyone.  I guess it's time to get my membership card to the Kotare Klub as there seem to be about a million of these in the WIP forum right now. 
 
Since finishing my Corsair diorama, which took months, I wanted a quick, straight forward build as something of a palate cleanser.  My son said he thought it'd be neat if I did a Spitfire, I had the Kotare Mk Ia (mid) kit in the stash, I've never build a British aircraft before, and so, fate was decided.
 
I departed from my usual MO of recreating an historical photograph and decided to just do a fictional, but feasible scene.  I've wanted to depict battle damage on an aircraft since I was kid, but never really had the skills or practice till now.  So, being that this kit has a low parts count and went together really nicely, I decided it would be a good platform to try my hand at damage.  I thinned the interior plastic walls with a low rpm rotary tool, carefully punched and pried holes in the weakened area, then painted and streaked the area to look the part.
 
Aside from the rigging wire (EZ-line), figures (Black Dog Resin, out of the box), and the base (el cheapo panel board), the kit is presented out of the box.  I even used the decals in lieu of my usual gig of cutting masks and painting.  This experience reminded me that I'm way out of practice working with large decals, but after a few minor scares, they turned out okay.
 
This is a Spitfire Mk Ia of 610 Squadron sometime in the summer of 1940 before it was damaged beyond repair that August.
 
"Bit of a rough go today, eh, chap?"




 















 














 

Back with an update.  Progress has been slow but steady.
 
After hosing the interior down with a broad brush, I spent some time getting the Eduard cockpit and HGW seatbelts around.



 
I added just a little weight to the cockpit section with lead sheet.  This is something like a pound of weight.

 
The interior... given the size, this thing is difficult to photograph.


 
Ammo boxes-o-plenty.



 
A rough fitting of the fuse halves.  The fit wasn't great.  There's enough openings in the fuse to verify that all internal bulkheads were located correctly, but still there was a decent gap between the halves in the upper spine above the ball turret and another on the bottom between the bomb bay and nose wheel well.  Break out the super glue.

 
The canopy actually fits nicely.


 
The aforementioned upper gap.

 
The also aforementioned lower gap.



 
Glue applied!

 
Channeling my P-38G conversion from a year ago, it's time to slather on the super glue and sand things down.  Fortunately, Trumpeter's lackadaisical approach to panel lines means that there was not a ton of detail to worry about having to restore afterwards.

 
While the glue was curing, I moved on to the wings.  The gear bays are monstrous things.

 
Starting to look like a Liberator.

 
Here's something I'm not too thrilled about.  The instructions call for sandwiching the wing halves over the heavy spar piece then... I dunno... it looks like you're supposed to screw them together, but there's just so much wrong with that idea.  There are no screws included with the kit and assembling the wings in that manner would leave you no option than to try to paint this monster as a single, complete unit.  That ain't happening as there's no way to maneuver it around my paint bench when fully assembled.  Sooooo, these 4 studs gotta go.

 
Easy peasy... the wings now slide on without trouble.

 
The wings with control surfaces.  I had to sand down the hinges for all the control surfaces because they were too wide and interfered with the control surfaces themselves.  Annoying, but not a show stopper.

 
Once nacelle installed before running out of steam today.  The fuse halves are filled and looking good, now I just need to do a bit of rescribing.

 
This thing is a monster.  I gotta say though, aside from its overall size, it's not a very inspiring kit.  Everything is big, chunky, and heavy.  There's very little in the way of small details - everything is big and chunky.  Ah well, there's no other show in town, so we'll make the best of what we've got. 

Excellent work, Chuck!
 
Kev

Back with an update.  Progress has been slow but steady.
 
After hosing the interior down with a broad brush, I spent some time getting the Eduard cockpit and HGW seatbelts around.



 
I added just a little weight to the cockpit section with lead sheet.  This is something like a pound of weight.

 
The interior... given the size, this thing is difficult to photograph.


 
Ammo boxes-o-plenty.



 
A rough fitting of the fuse halves.  The fit wasn't great.  There's enough openings in the fuse to verify that all internal bulkheads were located correctly, but still there was a decent gap between the halves in the upper spine above the ball turret and another on the bottom between the bomb bay and nose wheel well.  Break out the super glue.

 
The canopy actually fits nicely.


 
The aforementioned upper gap.

 
The also aforementioned lower gap.



 
Glue applied!

 
Channeling my P-38G conversion from a year ago, it's time to slather on the super glue and sand things down.  Fortunately, Trumpeter's lackadaisical approach to panel lines means that there was not a ton of detail to worry about having to restore afterwards.

 
While the glue was curing, I moved on to the wings.  The gear bays are monstrous things.

 
Starting to look like a Liberator.

 
Here's something I'm not too thrilled about.  The instructions call for sandwiching the wing halves over the heavy spar piece then... I dunno... it looks like you're supposed to screw them together, but there's just so much wrong with that idea.  There are no screws included with the kit and assembling the wings in that manner would leave you no option than to try to paint this monster as a single, complete unit.  That ain't happening as there's no way to maneuver it around my paint bench when fully assembled.  Sooooo, these 4 studs gotta go.

 
Easy peasy... the wings now slide on without trouble.

 
The wings with control surfaces.  I had to sand down the hinges for all the control surfaces because they were too wide and interfered with the control surfaces themselves.  Annoying, but not a show stopper.

 
Once nacelle installed before running out of steam today.  The fuse halves are filled and looking good, now I just need to do a bit of rescribing.

 
This thing is a monster.  I gotta say though, aside from its overall size, it's not a very inspiring kit.  Everything is big, chunky, and heavy.  There's very little in the way of small details - everything is big and chunky.  Ah well, there's no other show in town, so we'll make the best of what we've got. 

Back with an update.  Progress has been slow but steady.
 
After hosing the interior down with a broad brush, I spent some time getting the Eduard cockpit and HGW seatbelts around.



 
I added just a little weight to the cockpit section with lead sheet.  This is something like a pound of weight.

 
The interior... given the size, this thing is difficult to photograph.


 
Ammo boxes-o-plenty.



 
A rough fitting of the fuse halves.  The fit wasn't great.  There's enough openings in the fuse to verify that all internal bulkheads were located correctly, but still there was a decent gap between the halves in the upper spine above the ball turret and another on the bottom between the bomb bay and nose wheel well.  Break out the super glue.

 
The canopy actually fits nicely.


 
The aforementioned upper gap.

 
The also aforementioned lower gap.



 
Glue applied!

 
Channeling my P-38G conversion from a year ago, it's time to slather on the super glue and sand things down.  Fortunately, Trumpeter's lackadaisical approach to panel lines means that there was not a ton of detail to worry about having to restore afterwards.

 
While the glue was curing, I moved on to the wings.  The gear bays are monstrous things.

 
Starting to look like a Liberator.

 
Here's something I'm not too thrilled about.  The instructions call for sandwiching the wing halves over the heavy spar piece then... I dunno... it looks like you're supposed to screw them together, but there's just so much wrong with that idea.  There are no screws included with the kit and assembling the wings in that manner would leave you no option than to try to paint this monster as a single, complete unit.  That ain't happening as there's no way to maneuver it around my paint bench when fully assembled.  Sooooo, these 4 studs gotta go.

 
Easy peasy... the wings now slide on without trouble.

 
The wings with control surfaces.  I had to sand down the hinges for all the control surfaces because they were too wide and interfered with the control surfaces themselves.  Annoying, but not a show stopper.

 
Once nacelle installed before running out of steam today.  The fuse halves are filled and looking good, now I just need to do a bit of rescribing.

 
This thing is a monster.  I gotta say though, aside from its overall size, it's not a very inspiring kit.  Everything is big, chunky, and heavy.  There's very little in the way of small details - everything is big and chunky.  Ah well, there's no other show in town, so we'll make the best of what we've got. 

In 2022 I challenged myself to complete eight kits.  I managed, but it came down to about 7pm on New Years Eve.

Funny enough there's not... If you knock it off so many times that it gets put in the bowl of stuff to be added to the build at the last moment. 
 

Looking absolutely fabulous Chuck!
 
Iain

Back with an update.  Progress has been slow but steady.
 
After hosing the interior down with a broad brush, I spent some time getting the Eduard cockpit and HGW seatbelts around.



 
I added just a little weight to the cockpit section with lead sheet.  This is something like a pound of weight.

 
The interior... given the size, this thing is difficult to photograph.


 
Ammo boxes-o-plenty.



 
A rough fitting of the fuse halves.  The fit wasn't great.  There's enough openings in the fuse to verify that all internal bulkheads were located correctly, but still there was a decent gap between the halves in the upper spine above the ball turret and another on the bottom between the bomb bay and nose wheel well.  Break out the super glue.

 
The canopy actually fits nicely.


 
The aforementioned upper gap.

 
The also aforementioned lower gap.



 
Glue applied!

 
Channeling my P-38G conversion from a year ago, it's time to slather on the super glue and sand things down.  Fortunately, Trumpeter's lackadaisical approach to panel lines means that there was not a ton of detail to worry about having to restore afterwards.

 
While the glue was curing, I moved on to the wings.  The gear bays are monstrous things.

 
Starting to look like a Liberator.

 
Here's something I'm not too thrilled about.  The instructions call for sandwiching the wing halves over the heavy spar piece then... I dunno... it looks like you're supposed to screw them together, but there's just so much wrong with that idea.  There are no screws included with the kit and assembling the wings in that manner would leave you no option than to try to paint this monster as a single, complete unit.  That ain't happening as there's no way to maneuver it around my paint bench when fully assembled.  Sooooo, these 4 studs gotta go.

 
Easy peasy... the wings now slide on without trouble.

 
The wings with control surfaces.  I had to sand down the hinges for all the control surfaces because they were too wide and interfered with the control surfaces themselves.  Annoying, but not a show stopper.

 
Once nacelle installed before running out of steam today.  The fuse halves are filled and looking good, now I just need to do a bit of rescribing.

 
This thing is a monster.  I gotta say though, aside from its overall size, it's not a very inspiring kit.  Everything is big, chunky, and heavy.  There's very little in the way of small details - everything is big and chunky.  Ah well, there's no other show in town, so we'll make the best of what we've got. 

Slowly but surely making progress.  I couldn't stand the framework in the upper turret, so I spent some time sanding and polishing it.
 
The start... Completely inaccurate as it should have no framing at all.

 
220 grit to knock it down.

 
This is about 800 or 1000...

 
I finished at 4000 grit, then brushed on a coat of future floor polish. Much better.

 
A quick and dirty dry fit shows it's looking good!


 
Not surprisingly, there is a lot of crap to paint on this beast.

 
I spent today base coating the interior.  Nothing too exciting, so I didn't take many pictures, but I'll post a few once I get it washed and dirtied up a bit.  Next step is to build the Eduard cockpit bits.  More pics soon!

Hello, all.  We're back with another update.
 
I spent the better part of the day buried in the turretry of this big dumb beast.  I finished the scratch building of the tail turret and I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how it all came together. 
 
At this point, most stuff is just dry fit so I can break it all down and paint everything.  This shows my favorite .50 barrels on the market - Master Models.  They're turned brass and come in two parts with separate barrels and cooling jackets.  No resin or other aftermarket parts come close, in my opinion.





 
The rear doors took a little finagling to get sitting flush, but they are nice and snug now.

 
Here's the rough breakdown.  It's not a perfect recreation of the turret interior, but in all I'm pretty happy with how it looks when bundled up into the turret shell.  The arm for the gunsight can be snuggled nicely into place once the other half is put together.





 
Here's the Cold War Studio solid turret.  I had to scratch the rear doors, naturally.  When dry fit, they're a little loose, but a small bit of superglue ought to tack it in place without much trouble.



 
I also got the ball turret assembly around as well.  It will no doubt be a delight to mask and paint, but at least the assembly was very straight forward.





 


 
I know I said I didn't want to more lipstick on this pig, but I decided to break down and order another tail turret shell from CWS.  Their page says it's out of stock and "pre-order."  That's what their site said when I ordered the turrets that I have now, and they arrived within a few weeks.  So, we'll see.  Worst case, I can dispute things with paypal and get a refund. 
 
All that said, now that I'm through with the major scratch building part of this project, I think the rest of it will start to pick up speed.  I can tell you that I'm going to be burning a boatload of paint on the interior. 

Today's update:
 
I decided to tackle a couple items today.  First, I wanted to fill the holes in the nose as mentioned yesterday.  I left plenty of extra material on the outside of the fuselage so I'd have plenty to sand and feather.  The inside of the fuselage will not be visible, so I wasn't as worried about getting that as smooth. 
 

 


 
While I was/am waiting for that epoxy putty to cure, I decided to start looking into the turret question.  As expected, the internal components for the A6C (of which this a/c has 2) are nothing like those in the Emerson front turret.  So, with no other options, I'm going to have to do my best to scratch build the internals for one of them. 
 
These are the parts in question.

 
To be fair, I did check eBay for a parted out kit, but alas no Z-sprue is available.  I don't have a 3d printer either, or I'd probably build these in there.  I had started the build expecting it to be a pretty simple, straightforward thing.  Surprisingly, it's already throwing up a challenge for my scratch building skills.
 
The good news is, I'm already making some pretty good progress.

The main armor plating/framework roughed in.


I recreated the bend by carefully cutting partway through the plastic sheet, then back-filling the new gap with stretched sprue.


A compass helped cutout the ring.


And here you can see the fit of the factory part vs the blank of the scratch part.  I will use the scratch parts in the tail turret along with the kit-supplied split turret.  The factory turret innards will go in the CWS single-piece turret.  I've got the other side plate started, but it's very rough at this point.  Still, it's off to a good start.  I'll add details like the control boxes and wiring after I get the rest of the main structures together, but I'm pretty sure that once the turret is closed up and painted, nothing will really be visible of the interior.
 

That's looking really nice! I never knew there was a mud guard in the nose wheel compartment.