OK, let's talk about the wings, which have been the big project of this build. I apologize in advance for my long-windedness.
I had two major concerns:
1) Dealing with the very long sharp points on the front
The issue is straightforward: in my experience, very long sharp points like this a greatly subject to damage from handling, particular while papering. So I ultimately decided to make the leading part of the wings out of two pieces, one balsa and one basswood, like so:
Sanding the basswood tip to shape was a pain, at least compared to the extreme ease of sanding balsa, but the resulting piece was extremely strong and seemingly impervious to any punishment I could throw at it. This seemed good.
2) Strength of supporting the pods
As already discussed, I split the ring in half to improve strength. Here's the thought process. I spent *way* too much time thinking about this, to be sure, but I think the result is good (I can almost hear Gary snickering from here).
My fear was that having the pods simply attached to the outside of the complete ring would not be enough to keep them intact after a landing, given a mere 1" of root. So instead, by cutting the ring in half, I can have the wings extend all the way out to the pods. Good, except I already proved that I could snap 1/8" papered balsa on a hard landing (*cough*APRO Lander II*cough*). So I decided that the core piece that extended out to the pods would be basswood. Fortunately I had some 1/8" x 1" basswood stock leftover from... well, I'm not sure what. But it would be perfect for the core pieces. Then I also got the idea from Bruiser to add tabs to the wings, purely for alignment purposes. All I needed to do was extend the core pieces below the rest. And for good measure I put some small tabs at the tip for connection to the pods, which will probably accomplish nothing. So here they are:
Here are the not-quite-completed 6-piece wing assemblies:
Note that to create the flared tips of the wings where they join the pods, I added two small triangular pieces on either side of the core piece and sanded them to shape.
So far so good. Next, paper. Initially I was not sure if I trusted myself to paper these; the long sharp points scared me a bit. But after my excellent success with the fins, I decided to give it a go. At over 12" long, the wings were too long for a single piece of label, but that was OK because I didn't want to paper all the way out to the point anyway. Also, I only papered up to the mark on the core pieces indicating where the rings would join; I want the rings to be glued wood-to-wood, not wood-to-paper:
Using my new-improved technique, I got the paper to go cleanly within about an inch of the points:
I CWF'ed the points, to smooth over the edge of the paper.
So far so good.
Next, as also previously discussed, the ring pieces will need to be squeezed a bit to achieve the desired geometry. And so I borrowed a technique from the Avalon (there are many parallels between these builds) and put some small pieces of 1/8" basswood angle on the "outside" edge of where the ring would join. The result looks like this:
In theory, these little guys will help hold the ring in place while the glue sets, and also provide some extra strength to the finished joint. Here's an edge-on view in case it's not clear from the above pic:
Oh, and I CWFed the tip areas, no point trying to paper around those pieces (even I have my limits).
And so there it is. Each wing assembly is made from a total of 8 pieces. I believe the core basswood construction will be just about as strong as it can possibly be; whatever damage this rocket may endure, I do not expect breakage of the pylons supporting the pods to be part of it.
Next up is getting some filler/primer on those wing, and then they'll be ready to glue on.
Finally, I do still expect the ring halves to give me trouble when I glue them on, but I don't think I can be any better prepared than I am at this point.
