Like what you are doing here. I am back dating mine to a first production KV-1, by stripping the EK. armor, grinding off bolt heads that should not be there, filling lots of slots and holes, and looking for other small details to get it looking as right as possible. Glad HL chose not to go overboard with glue when they stuck on the armor.
I have put in a 6 volt gel cell battery, and modified the springs to make it move better and slow it down. It works super. still plenty of torque and a more ponderous suspension movement. Added in the HL strobe, larger speaker and waiting to finsh up the RCC battle unit installation, then it is final paint and off to war. I have also ordered some of the Modellbau track adjusters and front shaft bearing mounts as well as a few other items. It should be a great tank.