Hi gizmo,

Michael wrote: you are attempting to do things in a more difficult and low level way right off the bat and that is increasing the difficulty level for you by quite a bit.

This is so true, your head will explode ;) trying to do surfacing type stuff like that without exploring and seeing what MoI can and can't do or having a Cad/nurbs background.
But don't get too discouraged or frustrated, the more you find out about MoI and techniques shown on the forum the more easier it will become :)

I've attached your file, after having a play with it, and as Michael mentions there is a bit of low level work to be done before you can use the Boolean and filleting tools successfully so it is possible.
One hint is that if you look at the model you will notice it's in 4 pieces joined together, so I just worked on a 1/4 of it, got that right then mirrored and joined them together to make a solid then the holes and fillets were easy after that.

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