Semroc (Estes) Starship Excalibur Build, Part 9, Fins and Rounding

I couldn't use the balsa fin sheets in either kit!
I pressed a fingernail into the sheet to show how spongy it was.

All the fins and trim pieces were cut from new, harder 1/8" thick hand selected balsa. The laser cut pieces from the kit were used for templates.

At the back end of the fin a small dowel is glued.
I can only assume this is to prevent the corner of the fin from breaking off on a hard landing.

The three small dowels supplied in the kit weren't near the thickness of the fins and would look out of place on the finished model.
I grabbed a thicker dowel and cut it to length.

For the best fit the dowel was shaved to a half round.

Glued on the back end it is thicker than the fin.

It was easy to sand the small dowel to the fin thickness with my block.

In Step 4 the instruction say "Do not round any of the (fin) edges."
This didn't make any sense here, it would be harder to round the trailing edge after the fin was glued onto the body.
The dowel was rounded at the same time the trailing edge was shaped.