Activity

Separating the panels can be done in two ways. One is with a hobby/photo edged saw and carefully cut the piece following the panel line. The other way is using a panel line scribing tool. I recommend the one from Tamiya. Just keep scribing in the panel line until the parts are separated.
The hard thing to do is to keep the panel lines open. You could use a styrene rod, drill a same sized hole in the armor piece and the frame and glue it in place. By using two different diameters of rods, you could create a “piston” that “opens” the panel. Or you could make a hinge by making an “I” piece (roman numeral 1) by gluing 3 rods together. Using 4 “C” shaped pieces, this is easily done by cutting strips of an actual half round hollow styrene rod, these can be used as hinges for that “I” piece. Placing one end on, let’s say, the top op the armor part and the other half on the bottom section of where the armor is fitted on the frame (hope this makes sense).
I hope this gives you an idea on how to tackle the process. Good luck and happy building