1/72 aircraft antenna wire thickness?

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

I have a question about aircraft antenna wire for 1/72 scale aircraft. I just finished a 1/72 scale BF-109G. I was experimenting with stretched sprue and various thicknesses of wire and all appear too thick. What wire gauge/thickeness is appropriate? The antenna wire on the box art is really thin. I can’t get the stretched sprue thin enough and the smallest wire I have is .0085 thick. I remember reading an article a ways back in the magazine dealing with various sizes of wire for different sizes of aircraft.

2

0.0000000207863795344368 mm

3

Now ain’t that funny, TacoSalad!

Let’s say the wire rope they would use is nice and solid with 5mm diameter. In 1:72 it would scale to about 0,07 mm which equals 0,003 inch. That would mean your wire is like three times too thick. How about taking a stocking off a nice woman and using a nylon filament from it for the antenna? Hope it helps, have a nice day

Paweł

4

You can strech sprue as thin as a hair. Just let it melt then strech, do not pul it out of the heat to soon.

5

Great question! I play guitar and was going to use some old strings for an ant., but I think it is too big to use (if you are going for as accurate as possible). I guess the .008 string would be close enough. I don’t think I could eyeball .003" with the sprue stretching tech! I threw in the gauges for strings in case it would help.

Eagle90

Extra super light (8–38) .008 .010 .015 .021 .030 .038 –
Extra super light plus (8.5–39) .0085 .0105 .015 .022 .032 .039 –
Super light (9–42,52) .009 .011 .016 .024 .032 .042 .052
Super light plus (9.5–44,54) .0095 .0115 .016 .024 .034 .044 .054
Regular light (10–46,56) .010 .013 .017 .026 .036 .046 .056
Extra light w/heavy bass (9–46,56) .009 .011 .016 .026 .036 .046 .056
Medium (11–49,59) .011 .014 .018 .028 .038 .049 .059
Light Top / Heavy Bottom (10–52,60) .010 .013 .017 .032 .042 .052 .060
Medium w/wound G string (11–52,60) .011 .013 .020 .030 .042 .052 .060
Heavy (12–54,62) .012 .016 .020 .032 .042 .054 .062
Extra heavy (13–56,65) .013 .017 .026 .036 .046 .056 .065

6

Smoke coloured invisible nylon thread.

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Thanks Pawel. I will give that a try

8

Thanks. I am rather new to stretched sprue and I guess that I am pulling it out too soon. How soft should the plastic be before you stretch it. I have been putting the plastic over a candle and then stretching with terrible results.

9

I agree with Antoni. The finest thread I have found is monofilament, which is still too thick (I have found 0.003 inch). However, our eyes cannot discern actual thickness of wire that fine- it uses contrast to estimate size. High contrast, like a white or black color, makes it look larger, low contrast like a medium gray, makes it look smaller, and the translucent or smoke color is the lowest contrast, making it look significantly smaller than it really is.

10

I used the thread from a nylon stocking and it looks great! It stretches and holds its shape. Thanks for all your ideas!