Next question: How were the tabs held in place? Each recess around the perimeter of the front of the nacelle had an original screw hole, with a small nail hole on either side of the screw hole. The nail holes were leftovers from a previous restoration, but the screw holes appeared to be original. Ariel confirmed that the holes were made for 4-40 threads.
Some years previously, I had examined some high resolution publicity photos of the Production version model, and it appeared that each tab was held in place by a single round-head machine screw and a simple hex nut. It was hard to be certain, because even if you are examining a high resolution photo, a quarter-inch wide detail part on an 11-foot spaceship model won't be crystal-clear. Nevertheless, I thought that I had the answer, but then our new color photos added a wrinkle; some of the nuts had been partially unscrewed while somebody was performing maintenance on the model, and while the threads were silver, as I expected, the nut and head of the screw appeared to be one piece and were a bright golden color. In addition, the head of the screw appeared to be more convex than that of a regular machine screw. So much for the machine screw and hex nut theory. What had Richard Datin used 50 years ago?
Shortly thereafter, I found myself wandering the hardware aisle of a nearby big-box home improvement store, looking for a likely suspect, and then I saw the answer to my question, a brass acorn cap nut. It was the correct gold color, the correct tall shape, and once you’ve screwed a silver-colored length of thread into it, then VOILA - you've got a starship nacelle tab holder-onner! Or whatever you want to call it. I'll let Mike Okuda or Rick Sternbach come up with a more technical-sounding name. Trouble was, all the cap nuts and threads at the big-box store were too large, but during my day-long, waterlogged search for hardware, I finally found a local mom and pop hardware store that carried the correct size.