Ammo Belt:
After a few bad starts I finally went back to my original plan of how to create this structure.
Also I decided to commit to an onboard round magazine rather than the drum attached to the weapon.
https://i.imgur.com/X0SKDLq.jpg
The reason is twofold.
1 The Ammo drum is too bulky to attach to the loading housing and would look ludicrous.
2 Plus the drum would be too small to store a significant number of rounds. The hull would be a better option.
Maintaining flexibility was also a challenge which necessitated splitting the rounds on the ammo belt strip. Since the belt is merely for show I can make this presumption.
It took me two weeks to come up with a viable plan and I haven't even applied the details;
Whew!