Hey thanks, K-Dawg! I appreciate the look-in!
Well, I figured I better get an update out here before you think I forgot about this one..I'm dedicating this post to Hans Von Hammer, our resident "don't need no stinkin' AM parts!" guy who I hope will find favor with my attempts to scratchbuild 95% of the details here--this one's for you, Hans!
First of all, here's the nifty little sight mechanism--some nice detailing here, and the PE parts are kit parts.
And added to the gun, with seat and pedals added....
Here's the build-up before I started appraising and tinkering with things....SEE THAT GUN CRADLE, TERRY?! 
OK, so...........
...........I took a look at this concept of a model and thought that there were a number of things that could have used improvement and additions...first of all, tools and some fittings. I added some tools---a shovel, axe. crow bar, on the top hull and fender; they have scrap brass holder locking handles but you can't see them in the photo too well--and added a spare track holder on the front made from brass, wire and strip. (still adding details)
I added an expedient "field mod"--a stowage bin from an old zimmeritted vehicle. I figured they would maybe keep barrel cleaning heads/rags in here? In any case, it presents interesting painting possibilities?
Next, one thing that really bothered me was that these rear spades had
no way to raise or keep them up when traveling. The way the kit had them
engineered, they would literally drag on the ground. I also didn't like
the lack of towing pintles--these parts in circles are solid. So I
figured to build hydraulic lifters and replace the towing pintles.
I shaved off those "lights" or whatever they were--remember, everything is "conceptual" here, so you can pretty much take "artistic license" to a degree--and made new pintles, Then, I spent a good two days engineering and making through much trial-&-error some functioning hydraulic lifters. I drilled out some sprue with a micro-drill, and fashioned the rest from styrene rod and strip.
Here's what I have so far...I also added a back to the seat from scrap brass and styrene. You might notice that I cut away the fender insides as well to provide access to the pintles from a cable or hook:
I also plan to add retaining hooks to the spade arms' fronts, to hold them in place during travel. I'm prbably going to portray this vehicle in travel mode, in order to use the gun travel lock to hold up the heavy metal barrel.
I also scratchbuilt some gun cleaning rods and mounted them to a frame on the front gun shield with a little PE butterfly clasp.
That's it so far, guys! Hope you like it--I like these projects because there's so much room for improvisation! I hope you're equally inspired to create your own mods--I've got some more coming on this one; just a few small ones, but you'll have to wait for the next update!
Comments and critiques always welcomed!
the doog