Rather than messing with plastic, I decided to build this entire assembly using wood dowels, scale lumber, and my new best friend Formula 560 Canopy glue:
When I got to the third layer, I realized I needed to add the diagonal braces from the prototype. I makes some adjustments and re-glue some of the pilings while everything is still workable:
Thankfully, I realized the error in my ways before the glue completely dried—only a single piling should be between the diagonal bracing. The next phase was to wrap the main assembly with the smaller pilings. I trimmed the bracing with flush cutters, added several beads of glue, and then wrapped my small pilings around the entire assembly:
I didn't like how the bracing wasn't evident,so I added an additional layer of scale lumber to bring the details closer to the top. Now to let the entire thing dry tonight:
