Estes Green Eggs, #7301 Build, Part 3, Engine Mount Reinforcement

Occasionally I see a forum post where a builder will upgrade the centering rings to plywood. These kit supplied card stock rings are certainly strong enough for 24mm engines.
For those interested, I'll show how to make a much stronger engine mount using what was included in the kit.

I wrapped a copy paper strip around the engine mount tube. The overlap was marked.
The strip was folded into even thirds, the folds were marked with pencil.

The strip is re-wrapped around the tube. You must be sure the marked lines won't be in the way of the TTW fin tabs.
I set the first line just to the right side of the engine hook. This will place all the gusset lines to the sides of the fin tabs.

There is plenty of extra balsa on the fin sheet to make the three gussets.
Cut a wide piece with the grain running vertically. Sand to a tight slip fit between the rings. (shown above right)

Mark the gusset width a bit wide. (Bottom left) You'll sand off the excess afterwards.
A shallow notch is cut to fit over the black retainer band.

Glue the gussets into place. Sand off the excess gusset width little by little. Check the fit in the body tube as you are sanding.

Before adding and fitting the gussets, my centering rings were a loose fit in the body tube. After sanding them to size, the fit is much better and the mount will feel much stronger.