Great to see your work again Steph! I built that kit a while back... fun, cute little airplane. I was/am pretty clueless about the I-16 so I won't be able to offer any knowledge pertaining to the type.
Nice. Probably won't see much/anything behind the front vents. If you can, you can get away with making what would be visible, the top 3-4mms of the rods
Finally I made the pushrods (thx Geo & Andy ). So, I decided to made some modification to have mobile vents (to rotate) But it's is only possible with a needle