Steve,
I've edited my post with some pics of my new peltier back. I went for the shave off the fins and sand the surface flat approach. I've also built a temperature controller from a Jaycar kit that holds the temperature of the aluminium cold finger at 10 degC (+/-0.5 degC) and switches power to the peltier using a relay.
http://www.jaycar.com/productView.as...e&form=KEYWORD