Thanks for the comments guys. A few more steps forward on this one - first I wanted to add some red reflectors in the engine exhausts, so I glued some 2 mm reflectors on the ends of some 2 mm rod. I've drilled out the exhausts on the kit and these will be glued in when the paint is done: TIE Brute W...

Love all the mods and the weathering looks fantastic!

Wings glued to the fuselage pieces: Luckily the fuselages pieces aren't glued together yet because I just noticed the gun ball is upside-down!

Finally got back to this one. There was a bit of a step when offering up the rear section to the ball so I glued some styrene strip around the flat section to build it up and then sanded it to match the rest of the ball, after which the rear section was glued on: TIE Brute WIP_016A.jpg TIE Brute WIP...

FB is be the only option I know to contact him: https://www.facebook.com/RonGambleModelwerks/. He does seem to be pretty quick at getting back to messages but has a lot of projects on, so its a matter of getting in the queue...

Oh, that looks nice - will definitely be interested in one when they're ready

The Whisper does have the large, shrouded engines, as well as the rear window, under-belly gun and larger antenna of the SF TIE, which all need to come from the SF TIE kit. According to Wookiepedia it also has a 2 man crew...

FB seems to be the only option to contact him: https://www.facebook.com/RonGambleModelwerks/. He hasn't posted anything for a couple of weeks now though but he has been pretty good about replying in the past...

The conversion kit is actually to build Kylo Ren's Whisper interceptor, including the wings - I've ordered one full kit to build that and one with just the fuselage parts for this one.

Completed the modification on the red insert piece, using some small chisels and sanding sticks: