Thanks for the comments and suggestions, folks--keep 'em coming!
SAH, I can't claim credit for the eye-bolt idea; it's something I adopted after reading about it. I wish I could give proper credit to the original inventor, but I can't recall
where I read it first.
Diezmon, putting the eye on top is something I hadn't thought about. In this case, it wouldn't work, because the back-side levelers (on the left in the picture you quoted) are too close to the leg. But it's definitely something I'll keep in mind for future projects.
I think I've got all the heavy construction work done. Since the show is next weekend, my goal is to get the module "runnable" by tomorrow evening, and I think I have a fair chance of succeeding.
Last night, I got the front of both the plywood deck and the plastic "water" panel cut out for the lowered area in front of the dam, and started the framing to support the front section. I painted the plastic with the "Black Swan" paint, and left it to try.
This morning, I completed the basic framing and attached the deck. This picture shows the underside of the module at this point, and also shows how the legs are arranged when folded in transport mode:
I then had to fill the gap between the "upper" and "lower" portions of the river with an appropriate dam-like object.
The white material is 3/4 inch, quarter-round plastic molding from Home Depot. It appears to be made of a very dense foam, and is white all the way through. More importantly for my purposes, it's far more flexible than wood molding--flexible enough to follow the curve of the dam. I used one screw in the middle to hold the center firmly to the curve, and glued the rest into place with regular carpenter's glue.
Using the molding required a lot of additional blocking and support to actually hold the curve, and while it worked, I'm not sure it was the best approach. If I were to try it again, I think I'd either find a way to router the curve directly into the edge of a board (if it needed to be structural), or use a hot knife to make the shape out of styrofoam (if it were purely cosmetic).
By this time, the paint on the water panels was dry, and I could do a test fitting. Here's the module standing on its own levelers for the first time, with the water panels and bridge set in place.
And it looks like the plastic panels for the water will work just fine, if this little test is any indication:
And now, back to the grind...
