THANKS so much fellas!! Always appreciate the kind comments!!
Kokkari - The hull buckling was simply applying a lighter flame about an inch from the styrene to warm it up, then kind of a push/fold/push movement to get the shape, quickly before it re-cooled. The other recesses were pre-dug out of the acrylic, thin sheet styrene over those, heat the styrene and push in to the voids, and rough up a bit with Xacto. I'd say it ways MAYBE 50ish lbs. so far. I'm expecting 75-100 lbs at completion.
joberg - THANKS much on the 'gash'!! Yeah, I'm excited to paint/weather around it to get it shapewise to emulate the original, but it's so cool to see the 8RAD plate in there.
Marvin - Yeah, it almost becomes INSANE digging out all these original parts, but so Thankful for the TEAM of folks that did the lion share of IDs/sharing that allowed me to gather/collect all these remarkable kit donors!
JediMichael - Thanks, it's all about getting in an hour each night after work, and a very awesome/supportive wife that usually frees me up a day on weekends to play!
A very small update here - Some more Greeblies added to the Jawbox (I'm waiting on a couple kits to arrive to finish parts). Started test fitting the Sheridan plate on the hull wall, it fits in perfectly between the mandibles, will try to get some pics of that arrangement soon.