This shot shows the right-hand-side exhaust stack and armor plating. The square blocks are part of the attachment system for the PE exhaust shroud, and include superb weld-bead detail.

The circular disk visible to the left of the stack is a block-off plate used to cover a kit-supplied mounting screw.

Intermediate stage of the rear armor plate. The hinge plates for the mud flaps are in, and everything has received another coat of paint.

One of the two exhaust shrouds, ready for installation. After a bit of staring at the parts, I formed them by "wrapping" around a 1/2" deep-reach socket (you need a long one here...), gently securing the setup in a vise, and annealing the brass to remove springiness.

Once I was happy with the shape, I formed the flanges, and added solder along each seam for additional strength (I strongly recommend the addition of this solder to prevent damage during inevitable collisions).

At this point, the shrouds, jack, toolbox, and mud flaps have been installed. Just waiting for the air cleaners and final paint now.

It's starting to look pretty busy back here...

Close-up of the tool-box after installation.

Taking a short break from the "regular stuff" - an initial test-fit of the major electronics packages.

From left, going clockwise:

Sound Generator (dual electronic speed controller sits below this unit - from a cooling standpoint I'm not sure about this yet...), main control unit (handles decoding of signals from the R/C receiver and essentially replaces all servos), drive motors, R/C receiver (Futaba 7-channel, but a 4-channel will work fine), and finally two battery packs in the center. Finally wire routing won't take place until everything is installed.

Visible at the top is the underside of the top hull piece, with turret rotation unit installed.