Begineer looking tips on aircraft rigging

[Guest]

Hi guys. I'm looking for a tips with building aircraft as, there is a few things I would like to do with my kits to take them to the next stage in quality.

My first tip is rigging, not mainly bi planes but alot of aircraft bombers recon etc also have alot of rigging. What methods are used in order to attach it to aircraft as to me, putting glue to attach thread to a kit to me seems like an area for trouble.

please advise

[stona]

That's a big question! The answers are very different,depending what you are doing and in what scale. In larger scales you would have to consider adding tensioners (like turn buckles) and the fact that not all rigging was done with round wire. Antenna wires,as on WW2 aircraft are something else but again,depending on scale you might want to represent tensioners,insulators etc.

Bi-plane rigging I can't help you with,it scares the bejasus out of me,but someone will be along who is braver than me!

Antenna wires I certainly can help you with.

What are you planning to do?

Cheers

Steve

[papa 695]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Like Steve says its all about what you are looking for and the scale used, I have just finished an Airfix 1/72 scale swordfish and for the rigging i used fishing line looks good in that scale easy ( ish ) to do. The good thing about fishing line is you dont realy need the rigging to be tight when building the model, becasue when finished you can use a little heat from a lighter to pull it tight. But i would ask you to practice first because too much and it snaps. Hope this helps good luck and happy modeling

[Guest]

Fishing line was the idea i thought might be used for 1/72 scale. My planes focus around the ww2 bombers, lancaster and b-17's for example very simple subjects but What are you using to attach it to the aircraft guys?

[stona]

Hi again. For the aircraft you mention we are talking antenna wires and those I can help you with.

Firstly you will have noticed whilst looking at contemporary photographs that the various antenna wires are rarely visible. This is not because they are not there but because of how they are made. They were made on British,American and German aircraft from stainless steel wire. I imagine others used the same. This is of a fairly small gauge on the real thing,hence the difficulty in photographing it.

I model in 1/32 scale (mainly) and use 1Kg monofilament fishing line,for 1/72 you should consider something finer. We are already overscale anyway.

Usually at least one end of the antenna will attach to a fin or fuselage. In this case I drill a very fine hole around 0.5 mm. I apply a drop of superglue (cyanoacrylate or CA) to the hole and a drop of accelerator to the end of the line. Push the line into the hole and you've got an instant bond. You still need to leave it for ten minutes to go off.

Now you need to attach the other end,typically to a mast. It's a similar process. Apply a drop of CA to the mast top and accelerator to the line. Now position the line on the mast and it should bond almost instantly.

Here's the tricky part! If your antenna is not quite taut you can warm it up to make it contract. You need to be VERY careful or you will melt th line and be starting again! I heat a spatula over a flame and then pass this under the line as close as I dare. Others will suggest extinguished matches,hairdryers and all sorts of methods.

When you are happy you can paint the line,I use Humbrol 57 aluminium which gives a nice metallic grey but not too silver finish. Antenna wires were NOT black!

Here's a radio antenna on a Ju87 I recently completed.

On my Hurricane here you can see the wireless antenna (fin to mast) and the IFF antenna (horizontal stabiliser to fuselage) both done this way

Finally,a bit more complicated, a Bf109 with the 'down' wire from the fin/mast run to the fuselage.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

As an alternative to fishing line, try sea fishing bait elastic, its very fine, and being elastic fairly straight forward to get taut.

Cheers, Andrew

[mossiepilot]

Hey Andy.

Where do you get your elastic line from.

My local Boyes store does fishing equipment, but I have never seen this stuff before.

Not really looked either - fishing never interested me - apart from the gear I can use for my modelling that is.

Tony.

[Guest]

Check out your local yellowpages for a tackleshop, all my local ones stock it. Have you got a QD store a lot of those have a fishing section inside which should sell it!!! It is available in both black and white.

Cheers, Andrew

[BarryW]

Steve - that's a very good tip, many thanks. I will be giving that a try on my next model.

[Guest]

Check out this link http://www.breakaway-tackle.co.uk/ and search the site for bait elastic for examples

Cheers, Andrew

[stona]

Hi andrew,that looks quite interesting. How does it compare,gauge wise,with say 1kg momofilament. At 1/32 or 1/48 anything heavier is just too overscale,at least for me.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Some of us old fogeys still use stretched sprue, because it's free (pensions aren't that brilliant,) and the sprue, from clear parts, can look very shiny and metallic.

Edgar

[stona]

Stretched sprue works very well. I do use it from time to time,though not for antenna wires. It takes a bit of practice and the odd burnt finger!

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Steve, I'd say its thinner than the monofilimant, not really a course fisherman so haven't got any to compare with, but you can see the use of the elastic in the c-47 build in my gallery.

Cheers, Andrew

[Guest]

Another way is EZ line & Gold Zack knitting in elastic thread (knicker elastic so it has that additional use for you). EZ comes in 3 thicknesses & in a variety of colours plus black & white. Gold Zack comes in White. Gold Zack can be obtained from dress making places I bought mine at Amazon about £1:00 reel.

Their predominate advantage is they both have an enormous ability to stretch not that you need much but the tension when fixing does stop sagging.

I have used for aerial rigging the Gold Zack. A pen will give you colour or shading etc. This looks ok with 1/72 & also it has a slight glint which gives more of a stainless steel look. It is hardly measurable in thickness but 1/72 equivalent would be about 4mm on the real thing.

For fixing I use superglue. I place a very small drop on the model. I place the model vertical as it stops the superglue migrating. I dip the end of the Gold Zack in the accelerator & then offer up to the superglue. You only need a smidgeon of accelerator making sure it does not get onto the paintwork as it will leave a mark.

Where there is a connector or a tensioner in the aerial line I use a blob of super glue to replicate. Also seen these two on Amazon

Shirring Elastic 0.5mm White Elastic thread 20m reel

(equivalent in the real thing 1/32 16mm 1/48 24mm 1/72 36mm)

Hemline Shirring Elastic 20m *0.75mm white

(equivalent in the real thing 1/32 24mm 1/48 36mm)

Laurie