Looks promising ! I'm following this one up close as I'm looking for a light-weight stand-in of my CB88/MA-5C.
The one I was contemplating to duplicate till now would have been far more expensive in terms of materials used and a lot more labor-intensive too (full-metal build on artmoviefan.net).
I've also found 3D-Printer files for this one, so even if I wouldn't try to emulate your build, it still can provide me with a lot of ideas (like the conversion idea ! loved that).
Looking forward to your progress, be careful with that wrist of yours !