Colin,
I absolutely agree with your assessment. Lots of time on this one. I'm making some tough calls as far as how deep I'm going to go. My Hind A cockpit is plenty of scratch-building to keep me occupied. To complete this in a reasonable amount of time, I'm closing my troop cabin doors. Yes, that's right. So, problem solved on that one. But I'm not pussing out on the rest, particularly since the Hind A canopy is just a big fish bowl and the cockpit has got to be done to detail.
Anyway, group "Gorbach" builders, here's some more progress pics and links to some of my current pics. Yeah, it doesn't look like I made any progress since the last post, but if you look close, you can tell. She looks like hell, with sanded off primer, putty all over the cockpit ready for sanding, no final paint anywhere, and is just plain beat up. But, I'm an honest-johnny kind-of-guy, and thought you'd appreciate her in the raw.
Higg
more pics, linked:
bigger version of the above pic
http://users.cablemo.net/~higg/public_html/MI-24%20Hind%20A%20Scale%20Model%20Pics/Status%2005.24.04/Mother%20of%20All%20Montages.jpg
my gunners sight assembly (in progress)
http://users.cablemo.net/~higg/public_html/MI-24%20Hind%20A%20Scale%20Model%20Pics/Status%2005.24.04/Gunner's%20Sight%20Assembly.JPG
my gunners locking bar clamp (in progress)
http://users.cablemo.net/~higg/public_html/MI-24%20Hind%20A%20Scale%20Model%20Pics/Status%2005.24.04/Gunners%20locking%20bar%20clamp.JPG