I am building a 1/72 scale Bleriot (a stunningly poor kit–but I am determined to make the best out of it that I can).
I have never build a WWI era plane before and in spite of that I have decided to build a 1/72 scale WWI British aerodrome which will include Sopwith Camels.
All this to get to the question, what is a good technique for installing wing support lines (I don’t even know what they are really called–they’re the cables that criss-cross between the wings of a biplane) and what materials should be used?
While I have never done much in WW1 builds I have done a few WW2 aircraft with various support wires. I use .04 or .05 invisible thread. Usually I will drill a small pilot hole at one end and superglue one end there. The other end I drill all the way through the wing, push the thread through, pull it tight and apply a small spot of super glue. I use accelerator on the glue and shave the thread off and sand it smooth right away. The superglue stays sandable for about ten minutes after applying accelerator. Look on my site at the PT-20 and the Goose build for pictures of this process.
The “support lines” are divided into landing wires and flying wires - the landing wires keep the lower wing from drooping and the flying wires keep the upper wing from folding upward. The interwing support struts and wires keep the two wings together and parallel. Rigging and tensioning all the wires in 1:1 is a lot of work and critical to the strength and handling qualities of a biplane.
If you’re having trouble finding the right line to use for your rigging then why not try stretched sprue? Hold a piece of sprue over a flame and, just as it droops in the middle, pull both ends away from each other. With a bit of practice you can produce perfectly round, very very thin lengths of styrene that are easy enough to insert into pre-drilled holes and paint up. Some difficulties may arrise around the elevator controls etc but nothing too tricky (the heat from your fingers should be enough to make the sprue flexible enough for bending).
Good luck and try and post some pics so we can see how you get on