My wheel (the second picture) is now in pieces after receiving lots of conflicting advice about building it. I will probably just do 36x3, as I've bought a Mavic tubular for racing.

FYI - I noticed your post in my thread. It is not a LLRR spoke pattern at the rim. Skipping only one hole, it becomes LR*LR*LR*. So even if the missing spokes were added, it would not be LLRR. It would be something weird like LRLLRRLR