As we get nearer to the top of each mast they do get thinner and therefore more fragile. Some of the parts we have to attach are also small which do not go well with my sausage fingers. Particularly the shaped octagon which requires us to carve out some of the already thin mast.

My solution to this rather frustrating job was to :-

Cut a length of 8mm Dowel. (Had some spare as one of my past parts was broken on arrival and could not wait for a replacement)

Drill out a 5mm hole through the center of the dowel. Dont worry too much if it is off center as you can adjust when when you shape it.

Shape the octagon and slide it onto the mast

Glue in place ensuring it is in line with the base of the mast

Piccy attached

There is another way which is well used in other models, and that is to cut two lengths of dowel, and a square piece of wood, you then carve the square into an octagon shape, drill 1mm holes either end of the octagon, then taper your dowels, and drill a 1mm hole in the end that needs to fit the octagon (you drill all the holes around 10mm deep) once everything is drilled and shaped you fit a 20mm length of 1mm brass wire into the octagon holes gluing with superglue,then fit your two dowels on to either end of the octagon, again gluing with superglue.

I hope all this makes sense