Hello, T, and thanks for your response. I deeply apologize for taking so long to acknowledge your response, but just after you posted I broke my left forearm in 5 places. That not only brought my modeling activities to a screeching halt, but pretty much limited my ability to type as well. I'm happy to report that I had surgery to repair the breaks three weeks ago this past Friday and I'm doing much better, back at the keyboard and more importantly, back at the work bench!
I have seen the photos you posted and thought I would do her with blast bags, but thought I'd check to see if someone had any information that would be a compelling reason to omit the blast bags. Since I've been back at the bench I've done up the turrets and did model them with the blast bags in place. I used Model Master metal barrels to replace the plastic ones in the kit. Well worth the money.
I'm building the 1/350 kit. My 54 year old eyes just won't let me work in anything smaller, even with an optivisor. And, I like the additional detail you get in a 1/350 kit. I'm painting her in Measure 21 camouflage using WEM Colourcoats enamels, mostly air brushed. I'm using the kit supplied PE set along with items from the Cyber-Hobby Benson Class PE set as well as items from the Yankee Modelworks Benson Class PE set, picking the best items from each. I'll try to post some pictures of progress to date (I'm about 60% done) if I can figure out how. LOL
Bob