The Semroc instructions have you glue the tower onto the Command Module capsule before the V strut assemblies are in place. I found it easier to glue them in place now. Looking ahead, I wanted to spray paint the tower and get all the dowels and glue joints smooth before gluing it to the capsule.
I actually had to do the "V" strut assemblies twice to get them right!
On that first try, the legs of the "V"s were glued together as a group of four. The ring was glued on top of that. I tried to insert it into the tower from the top - big mistake! Note to self: Go up through the bottom, it's a bit wider! During all the placement adjustments, the split "O" ring got bent in four places, between the V tips.
On this second and successful try, a cruciform pencil line was drawn over the assembly jig - shown under the assembly at the right. I drew tick marks on the ring so I knew exactly where to glue the V tips. If this assembly were glued together "flipped over" like in the instructions, you can't see under the ring to tell if the V tips placement is even.
I glued just the V tips down on the pencil marks. This was I was guaranteed equal spacing between the four Vs.
Notice in the picture the leg ends are not glued together. This will act almost like a "hinge" and be flexible enough for adjustments inside the tower.
As mentioned before, the larger assembly should go in from the bottom of the tower. Trust me on this, the tower base is wider that the top. Use tweezers to get the legs in place around and inside the four tower side dowels. Those end tips of the Vs should fit against the tower sides.
The smaller V strut assembly goes in from the top of the tower. After all that fiddling with the lower assembly, the upper one goes in easily. Here's the top view and you can see how the Vs sit on the tower sides. This picture was taken before the upper V was glued in place.
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