Segmentata Advice

[Matthew Amt]

No, I always recommend drilling (or better yet, punching) the holes and then shaping the plates. If you are talking about the girdle plates, you can even put all the fittings on them, put them together with their internal leathers while the plates are still flat, and THEN curve the whole section at once. I was a little dubious the first time we tried this, but it works! It's easier to install the leathers that way, and quicker to shape the plates to about the same curvature.

Don't worry, you'll use all those rivets sooner or later!

Vale,

Matthew