Hay Shazza I suddenly felt a little insecure when I saw that you had brought my comment about the black midplate to everyones attention.
I must say I was greatful as I kept reading on, that I was not shot down by red flames.
Personly I do like the black, I feel it accentuates the red (dam I hope thats the right word) allows the red stand out, make a statement without being to overpowering,
I think it's best I just stop there, hay.

As I read through the other comments, I think I read the the midplate is just a temp.
If so and you intend to make another one, then having two bends at 90 degrees down each side would really help keep it straight, the bends would only need to be 10-15mm.
Having the bends face down would be strongest way, if you intend to place any weight on top of it or it will bend, more like the sides will kink actually.

One other thing I also feel would look good/better and thats mounting the EK res to sit flush on the midplate.
This would also help to make the res look more stable.
If you copied the way the Captian did his pass throughs with the Lezlies, the res could sit flush and would still have a water tight seal.

Just my 2 cents, humm well more like 1.8 cents with the Aussie exchange rate.

Oh and next time you water the palm, cocos said she would really like some high nitrogen fertilize as well, I'am sure she would much appreciated that as well.