What do you guys use to represent 1/48 flat rigging wires? I am finished with my 1/48 scale p-26 peashooter and am debating what to use for the flying/landing wires.
I thought of using .5mm styrene strip, but this is a bit too wide to my eye. This is as narrow as they go. Also I have plastruct .3mm rectangular rod, but I want to replicate the flat wires used on the P-26.
Any suggestions?
thanks
This is a real problem, the things are more complex than they first appear. The wires are flat for the most part, but are round where they enter the structure, so they can thread into a clevis.
I have had reasonable luck with soft steel wire (like aircraft safety wire, which is what I actually use. They sell annealed steel wire at hardware stores as craft wire, works just as well.) I’m down to about a 20% reject rate!
I roll the wire against a hard anvil, such as a steel plate or a workbench, with a steel rod or roller. The smooth end of a large diameter drill bit works pretty good if you tape the flutes so they don’t cut you! You can then roll as much of the section flat as you need for the particular run of the wire, leaving the ends round. Now, it will curl, so you need to roll both sides to take that out. Once you have it rolled, you can sand and polish it to get rid of marks from the rolling. Tried solder once, it was just too flimsy once installed on the model. The steel wire is stiff enough to appear that it is under tension, but will bend enough to let you insert it in holes drilled in the fuselage and wings. The Boeing has plenty of these wires, too!
Once you get into 1/48th, you are kinda honor bound to replicate the real wires, monofilament and stretched sprue just fall short of the mark!
May be a long shot, but Tamiya sells a separate PE rigging set for their Swordfish. Might be adaptable for the P-26.
Regards, Rick
Yes. Thought about that, but a little too expensive for one kit! [:(]
Going to the local hobby shop today. They specialize in model railroads. They may have flat small gauge wire. We’ll see. [:)]
Why not just trim down the .5mm strip to the correct size? Tape it to a solid surface, get a straight edge and a new #11 blade. Should be able to get it to the correct width in one pass, if you know how wide it should be.
-Fred
My eyes are not that good![;)] Also, I found some small gauge wire at my local hobby shop and it will be perfect for flat landing/flying wire;about 0.25x0.35mm. [Y]
The fine wire is a good suggestion, though be careful if you get fine beading wire, like I did. It’s relatively soft, so it kinks easily. Steel wire would be better to take the stress of working it.
Evergreen strip is not a bad idea, either. If the off-the-rack widths don’t quite suit your build, try warming it ever so gently, till you can stretch it like sprue. You can stretch it to a narrower width, while retaining the flat profile that you want for the RAF wires. And you can cut/file/sand the ends to match the profile where the wire meets the attachment points.
For that matter, if you have flat pieces of sprue, you can stretch them into RAF wire stock. Stretched sprue retains its profile in cross-section, it’s just that the diameter or width becomes very small.
Hope that helps!
Actually, the wire does kink and bend easily. I plan to rig today. Hopefully she’ll be done tonight. [t$t]
Id be keen for some photos to see how you get on