If we are friends of the rings, then you might say we are a fellowship, of sorts. But you are unquestionably Lord of the Rings! 
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Thanks Mark for your nice compliment. 
Hello everybody,
after all the clamping rings have been installed now, the question now arises about the further procedure with regard to painting (airbrush) of the ring lines, about which I have been tinkering for a while. 
I am not quite sure whether I should glue the supports before painting (possibly with MEK?), or whether I paint all the supports and the ring lines first separately 
and then glue the supports … 
Here is once more an elder image with all the supports, but still without clamping rings.
With the clamping rings, the interspaces there will inevitably become even narrower. 
To glue the supports previously and then completely paint the whole skeleton with all the supports would certainly be the less expensive method. However, I have doubts whether one reaches with the Airbrush jet into the small interstices between the sickle holders and clamping rings, or whether they could possibly clogged, which of course should not happen. 
For this I have here a macro image of the place conditions between the ring line and the supports, whereby the distances between the sickle holders are about 1,5 mm, between which the clamping rings (0,5 mm) sit, whereby one should not be deceived by the real proportion.
Otherwise, I would have to airbrush the supports separately, possibly only from above, and the ring line with the clamping rings at least at the bottom, then gluing the supports and airbrushing once more all together …
So all in all a pretty tricky decision to a guaranteed stressful procedure, that I must meet now, which is why I am curious what you mean, or what you would advise me … 
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I shouldn’t have the temerity to offer advice to a master such as you, but if it is worth considering:
- Pre-shade all recessed areas (including supports) with black or dark grey
- Paint everything with supports off
- Clean the gluing surfaces and attach the supports
- Re-paint
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Thanks Mark for your good-intentioned tips.
But I’m going to glue all Pipe supports onto both SSWS Ring lines, which then will completely be airbrushed. Then both ring lines will be inserted into the SRB Blast Chambers, and then all supports will be glued to the MLP with MEK, which I’ve tried and, amazingly, it works. 
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Hello everybody,
and because we have dealt with breakages, of which I had to complain already some at the ring line outlets, without damage the last action with the clamping rings unfortunately had not ended.
On closer inspection, I have noticed unfortunately that the small nipples on the outer two 6’’ outlets behind the TSMs after the felt 100.000 twists and turns when clamping the ring lines must have been broken, 
which I had not noticed so far.
That is why, for a change, cosmetic operations were announced today, because something like that bothers me, even though it would hardly be noticed by somebody else’s. 
These OPs are, however, rather delicate, since the outlets are only thin round bars (Ø 1 mm), into which still thinner rods (0,3 mm) have been glued as nipples. That is why I have first carefully sanded off the remaining stumps and then still more cautiously drilled small holes with Ø 0,3 mm, but for which I first had to think on a clever clamping condition of the ring line for a stable support. 
Seek and you shall find, and here the nipple rod is already glued again with a little overhang, which now only needs to be shortened accordingly, what but also does not so easily go out of cupped hands.
For the cutting off the overhangs then a different support had to be found and to be newly clamped again,
so that the rod also has a stable support and can not break off.
But that worked out well,
as one can see here.
And the same OP then synonymous still at the other ring line, as before. 
And so the damages have been remedied again.
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another great in-depth update to add to the collection … the precise detailed work never lets up. Very nice indeed.
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Thanks John,
well, this is meanwhile my claim that drives me forward.
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It is never boring to see your work Manfred. Every detail is very well executed. Beautiful and marvelous!
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Thanks Mike, my true friend,
meanwhile it has become a passion and acts like a drug.
Hello everybody,
in the last few days I have finally brought myself to start with the gluing of the Pipe Supports under the ring line behind the LOX-TSM, for which the already announced removal of the rear SRB Supports was necessary.
Since I can carry out the gluing of the supports only step by step, in order to be able to check their seat, I have to remove the ring line now and then, and because I did not want to risk anything, I have removed the disruptive rear SRB Supports.
For gluing of the pipe supports, the ring line was then introduced again and its exact seat fixed with the spacers. After that, I tried as a first variant the gluing with MEK and have initially positioned and aligned only three supports under the ring line, as well as dabbed the contact points of the sickle holders on the outer side carefully with a fine brush with MEK, which should be sufficient for a first hold.
And as one can see in this image, that was actually already sufficient. 
Since in the bracket-holder I can reach now the remaining contact places of the sickle holders from all sides, I can now also glue them completely.
And so it can then gradually go on with the next supports.
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Hi all together,
for the gluing of the next Pipe Supports I used again my approved bracket in the mini vise, which is best suited for this.
With this I have much more freedom of movement for the assembly and can adjust the position of the ring line so that the already attached three Supports lay flat on the support block and I can push the next supports below the line by slightly raising and arbitrarily align.
Then I also modified the gluing technique, whereby I carefully dab the normal Revell plastic glue onto the sickle holders with a acupuncture needle, then push the support under the raised ring line and then lower it. This allows for even smaller position corrections until the support sits in the right place. After that, the ring line is still weighted down, so that it can be fixed firmly on the spot.
Then I can then take the mini vice with clamped ring line in the hand and stabilize the sickle holders also still from inside and outside with MEK, which should give them the final hold. 
And this technique I have here exercised with the two Supports behind the corner bow, which also worked great.
And in the same way it went on down the straight line.
And now they hang in rank and file and look .
Then came the three flatter supports sitting on the Blast Shield, which I have glued with inserted ring line.
And finally, I have glued the small support under the 16’’ rejuvenation behind the LOX-TSM, which has only one sickle holder.
So I want to let it go for today.
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Excellent scratch work!
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A great update showing this superb build. 
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Thanks Venelin and John,
that’s why the show should go on too.
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Hello everybody,
today I want only present a few pics about the gluing of the six Pipe Supports on the inside of the ring line behind the LOX-TSM, which took place in the same way.
And tomorrow it will go on with the gluing of the first six triangular supports (left) at the outlets of this ring line,
which hopefully will work similarly well.
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Hello folks,
as hoped for, the gluing of the first three triangular supports went smoothly, as can be seen in the following pictures.
And then the three supports at the outlets on the inside of the ring line had their turn. 
So far so good, now I need to repeat the same procedure only still on the other ring line behind the LH2-TSM.
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Hello everybody,
but before I go on with the gluing of the supports on the other ring line, I want to start (again) with the preparation of the [Water Bags(), which I had already begun a long time ago, until the reconstruction of the SRB exhaust holes up to 1:144 has stopped me.
Since I now intend to present the MLP both with and without Water Bags, I first had to think about how best to solve this constructively.
These elongated foil water bags, which are suspended into the SRB shafts, are filled with water only to a height of 12" (approx. 30 cm), as can be seen here again.
With a width of the (most) bags of also 12’’ and a length of 20’ (6,10 m shaft width), the result is about 550 liters of water per bag, which corresponds exactly to the volume of my aquarium.
First, I want to start with the bags in the back of the chamber (Secondary SRB Hole), with the first part reaching from the shaft back wall to the 18’’ outlets (Ø 46 cm) which contains 18 of these red bags. This will inevitably become a few less for my MLP because of the modification of the SRB holes … 
As can be seen in this image, the first water bag is hanging between the chamber back wall and the 36’’ feed pipe (Ø 91 cm) and is therefore somewhat narrower than the other bags in front of the pipe. The next two bags are somewhat wider than the remaining ones and also shortened in front of the feed pipe, which should be taken into account in the following design.
Source: flickr.com (Andrew Sheer)
So I first took measurements and made a new template for the partition walls,
and therefore get to work! 
Since the distance between the back wall and the feed pipe is rather small, the first bag can be only 1,5 mm wide.
For the gluing of the parts with MEK, I have carefully placed Teflon foil underneath.
Since the bag has a bit jammed during insertion, the length had to be adjusted slightly.
Therefore the question for insertion came up, so it is probably more favorable to insert the bags later from the bottom into the shaft with installed ring line, because the SRB Blast Shield slightly protrudes at the top edge and therefore would disturb. 
And now to the small-scale production of the individual parts. For the “normal” bags I will use a square profile (2 mm x 2 mm) for the lower webs, and for the partition walls 0,2 mm Styrene Sheet by Evergreen.
The next time, however, it will go on with the two wider bags next to the feed pipe (Ø 6,2 mm), for which I will use a rectangular profile (3 mm x 2 mm), after which the normal bags will then follow.
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Hello everybody,
here is the next step on the way to the Water Bags, which are going to be composed of several parts, but always beautifully in sequence, just like during the later assembly.
The first part is the slightly narrower bag (1,5 mm web width) behind the feed pipe, which is already finished and could already be seen in the last post.
The next part extends up to the two 18’’ outlets to which these individual parts belong,
which must be carefully cut out so that the bag package becomes uniform. Below the scissors lie the wider webs (3 mm x 2 mm) and the shortened partition wall for the two bags next to the feed pipe,
which were next glued.
Then the longer partitions with the “normal” webs (2 mm x 2 mm) follow.
And so the first assembly test looks like, which shows that the bags fit quite well and it can equally go on up to the 18’’ outlets.
Then the third part follows, starting with the bag between the two outlets and the following two “normal” bags, followed by the two short bags between the two rear MLP Support Posts, which unfortunately are covered by the guy in the bluey.
Source: flickr.com (Jen Scheer)
I hope I can insert this connected third part from above, as well as the remaining three short bag parts on the side walls and the front shaft wall.
Source: www.youtube.com (Michel Mephit)
So much for the moment.
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Hello everybody,
here are a few pictures of the continuation of the gluing of the Water Bags in the SRB shaft behind the LOX-TSM.
And so it went on.
I had to pay attention to the fact that the package could not move upwards, for which I clamped it between magnets and pressed the central webs gently down onto the pad each time and held it tight for a moment.
In this way, I have glued ten bags behind the inlet pipe,
which extend to the two 18’’ outlets.
Then it goes on with the third part, which begins with the wider bag between the outlets.
As an encore I still have this interesting video, in which the ingenious principle of the SSWS is very impressively illustrated and explained, which one or another may already know.
Noise Reduction Technology in Space Shuttle’s Lift off Using WATER MIST
Enjoy this cool video.
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