After settling on the basic idea, I started looking at materials and decided to use PVC since I guessed this would fare better than wood outdoors. Also, I really wanted the saucer to be curved in its overall shape. I figured a curved body would look more realistic, and that a plastic frame might help accomplish this goal. I probably spent more time laying out the PVC on our lawn, staring at it and playing with it, than I did actually building with it. It would have been helpful to know some specialized math to figure out the optimum number of panels and their dimensions but I figured I could make do using some good guesses and a lot of trial and error. Shown here is the "assembly line" (our driveway) where I built the triangular panels (a panel in progress is laid across the ladder and workstand). The tools used included a cordless drill, a small saber saw, and a cheapo table saw for cutting some angled pieces of wood. Otherwise, nothing special was used to build the saucer.