I know what you mean Typhoonfury. I also put the battery in the cowl box right under the fuel tank. The turtledeck wouldn't fit for me either so I made mine out of floral foam with filler to smooth it out. Mine also has the wing held on with screws. The filet on the full scale P-40 is such a distintive feature that I just had to have one. It is not quite as hard to make as it looks. However, this is not the first one I have made. First thing you do is to get a good fit of the wing to the fuse. Does not have to be perfect though, If you have a little slack that is ok. Next, you cut strips of 1/32 plywood the outline of the filet where it meets the wing with just enough to be able to glue it to the bottom of the fuse. Then cover the wing with was paper, glue the plywood to the bottom of the fuse and bolt the wing up to it to hold it in place while the glue dries. Then you sketch the outline of the fillet on the fuse. Cut a piece of plywood to match the end of the wing to fair it back to the fuse. This piece is actually glued to the bottom of end of the first plywood pieces. Next you get some electrical tape and tape off the outline of the filet on the fuse. This is there so that you can sand without sanding into the fuse after the filler pieces are in.The next step is to fill in with foam blocks. Glue the foam to the plywood and the fuse but not to each other. I did that once and found that the glue joints when dried would not sand evenly. After the glue dries, sand the contour of the filet into the foam. After the rough contour is in, fill any imperfections with filler then sand again. After all the sanding is done, remove the electrical tape and you will find that the tape actually will leave a nice panel line where the filet begins.

I swapped out the LA 40 I had in her for a Tower 46. She came out quite a bit tailheavy so I figured I might as well make some added nose weight come in the form of more displacement. Even after that I still had to add 6 onces of lead. AUW dry came out to 5 lb 12 onces. Not too bad considering all the extras I added. Took her to the field today but with 15-20 mph winds and an inner ear infection I decided that I better not try it today. I did taxi her down the runway a few times. Sure looked pretty out there. Well maybe next week. Here are some finished pics I took before swapping out the engines.