'Built like a brick s**thouse' Ed 😁

It should come out nice and sturdy!👍

Thanks, now I'm restoring the boat it came from. Going to try plastic next.

Looks good!👍

Ok, here is the balsa version.

Thanks, will look into this. Yes I have a Dremel tool.

Yes - drilling small holes on circular surfaces is difficult.

Do you have a small dremel-type drill with some disc cutters? If so, a light cut across the top of the tube would be easy to do accurately and would leave a small hole. If the cut was too deep it might weaken the brass tube, but for a static model that would be fine. The solder would flow into the cut and hide it completely. You could even do it with a triangular needle file.

If the cut did not go completely through it would still help in centring the drill. The nice thing about drilling holes is that you then have 1/8" excess tolerance that you can cut the vertical wires to - they will slide up and down in the tube...

You can also cut tubes precisely to shape, then join them temporarily with a bit of mains copper wire inside, making very neat joints. See pictures 5, 6 and 7 on this page -

I ordered some tubing to try your suggestion. Thanks

Thanks, no experience with that. Will give it some thought. Im using 1/8 rod, without a drill press that would be hard to do.

That soldering looks as if it will be stronger than wire.

If you want a neater finish, you could drill holes in the large tubes to accept the smaller rods. This would be easier to solder, neater and more precise.

A shroud is the metal framework around the airboat engine to protect the propeller. When I built theboats I have, I used wire and super glue. It didnt stand the test of time.

perhaps a picture showing what you are trying to do would enable us to give more directed advice...