The third stage base ring already came with a lathed lip which does help when aligning the coupler tube to this. The older version simply gave you a flat disk to work with and alignment was done by butt gluing both the third stage tube and the coupler on by taking measurements from the center of the ring.
After wet sanding with 400 grit paper. You'll notice the grainy appearance itself is all but gone and just a bit more sanding is needed to get ready for paint.
Alright, so I have to use Photobucket for this. Anyway, I've applied tape at the juncture where my sanding bar would be at a 45 degree angle to the tube. When hand sanding I've found this works quite well as a gauge of sorts.
Alright, so I have to use Photobucket for this. Anyway, I've applied tape at the juncture where my sanding bar would be at a 45 degree angle to the tube. When hand sanding I've found this works quite well as a gauge of sorts.
Both brand new and never used.
The pattern that came with the kit was just not working so I made up my own (again) and this one fit just right. Next will be to lay out the stringers then the lower and upper wraps which I need to cut out from a larger sheet of corrugated plastic. Dave had to send me this extra sheet as the two strips for the third stage never came with the kit.
The original kit supplied you with a three inch coupler where as this version gave me a nine inch coupler. 
And the beginning of the stringers. There will be over one hundred forty on this adapter. I only seem to put two maybe three on at a time and then lose interest. Me thinks this will be a time consuming part of the assembly of the kit where I'm concerned. It's too bad the two piece adapter was of such poor quality to begin with, but you just keep working on.
I had made the mistake of gluing on the corrugated section too high covering part of the UI area. It needs to be 1 inch below the top of the tube rather than parallel or even with the edge. So I was able to remove the styrene without much fuss, sand down the damaged area and will re-attach the styrene again in it's proper location. Later on this will be filled and sanded down repeatedly until I get a smooth, blemish free surface.
Don't know but I found this photo of her. This was in September of 2008.
Now the panel is attached to it's proper place. More stringers to lay on the adapter.
I just got all the parts and slapped it all together for the first time. It looked a little larger than I had initially anticipated. Notice we haven't been watering our lawn, just everything else around it.
