New to AX combat need advice

I'm a pretty experienced player of the game with regards to combat. I've spent the last two weeks or so outfitting a Krait mkII for ax combat.
I'm running four gauss cannons with one remote release flak launcher.
But my problem isn't weapons it's my armor and shields. Currently before I started outfitting hull into my krait I had 1,236 flat shield durability with a bunch of resistance in all levels. I engineered the krait to the fullest of what I currently can, but I ended up needing to replace my utility mounts with heatsinks, and a shutdown neutralizer as well as a xeno scanner. This put my shields into a less than good state, currently right now I have only 462 flat shield health and with my armor and hull Reinforcements, which are all Tier 3 heavy duty I thought I'd be set for some AX combat.
But I went into an AX combat zone and a scout went through my shields and did 20 of my hull right off the bat. I just need advice on what to put on and outfit for my ship, anything would help.