Hello;
How was the radio wires attached to the tail? In pictures it looks to be maybe a spring and some kind of white insulator. I am working on AM F3F-1. Any help on how to model this would be appreaciated.
Thanks Bill
The wires were usually attached to a spring and to the insultor post-ring on the tail and mast… The wire had a small amount of slack between the post and spring, as the spring acted as a stress-relief.
Here’s a link to some pics in which the insulators and wires a fairly visible:
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/ac-usn22/f-types/f3f.htm
Modeling the insultors, might I suggest using a plastic Q-tip. Stretch the Q-tip handle like you would a piece of sprue, cut it to length, then insert the antenna lead though the Q-tip tube…
From the pics it looks like the insulator is about 3 or so inches long which the two wires lead through to a spring of about 12 inches long. Lengthes are just a guess. Modeling the spring is doable but vary fragile if it is bumped. What I may opt to do is serve a length of line to imitate the spring. Any thoughts. Thanks for the link to the pics.
Bill