So I finished grinding off the A3 rear engine access door and one of the two tow shackle tabs. Then bondo and sand and paint. I added the rear armor plate on the sides that protects the filter boxes, that was fun as I accidently copied a Baldwin m4 then I found a better picture that was an Alco, so I re made them. I filled in the rear corners of the upper hull by boxing them in more just for support of the armor plate which I used plexi to make. Then the styrene angled pieces are the remanents of the sand shield system. Seems they were welded to the armor plates so they all lasted in some sort of condition to today as most photos show them still there, though usually bent up or cut down. I left them angled hanging out the rear as if the sand shields had been removed recently, it looks odd but that's what they look like.
The filter boxes are Tamiya but Im not using them, Alco had a stepped down cylinder type filter canister so I am going to have to fab that myself. Every time I look at the tank I see more work that needs to get done. Im going to paint the upper hull today, prime really, then paint this weekend. I will come back and fab the filter cans, I don't even have styrene tube that big on hand.