This may very well be hidden somewhere in the folds of this forum, but I’ve not found it yet. So, as I’m bashing the Lindberg minesweeper, I will be rigging her for an ocean tow per the US Navy Towing Manual, and need a thread that lays out similar to wire rope. That would be slightly stiff but with weight, as compared to regular standard laid line or double braid.
Also, if there a solution that the line can be wetted with so that it can be arranged on deck, coiled, faked, or figure 8’ed, so that when dry the line will lay flat on deck? I don’t necessarily want to glue it down, but . . .
Assuming that you are holding to the scale of the kit (far from always the case- I’ve gone up 100% and down 50% on bashes), 1" wire rope would be 0.008", 2" would be 0.016" etc.
Just a suggestion for those doing a larger scale towing diorama…
A Guitar “wound” string can act and look a bit like a steel cable for a towing Dio, depending on scale-size. It can present the slight sag that is sometimes seen. I think the smallest diameter is .022" though.
The stiff string idea is probably best for that Lindberg Minesweeper model. The Guitar string will not bend into a small diameter coil or lay out similar to wire rope. It does not work on a cable reel either. It snaps back “atcha”!
If anyone doing a full diorama, here is an example of the sag I mentioned.
That sag you are referring to is call ‘catenary’, and in that picture you posted they are just starting to stream the tow. Normally you will have at minimum, one shot (90 feet) of chain and then an intermediate tow cable or the tow cable from the towing vessel. Occasionally they will also put a length of large double braid in there too. The chain and the double braid are there to absorb shock. In my case, I’ve got the primary tow leg (chain) hanging at the bow, and the back-up leg (chain and messenger cable) strung along the starboard side. It’s the messenger cable (wire rope) that I’m trying to duplicate, as black thread just doesn’t lay right.
I had the pleasure of being on the crew that towed the USS Missouri BB-63 from Puget Sound down to Long Beach for it’s re-activation back in the 1980’s. Now that was a towing job!
Weight / drag is part of the calculations for the chain and towline. Length is, in simple terms, long enough to keep it from running into you if you have to stop and also keep the tug and tow “in step” without overly hampering maneuverability.
When we towed the Big Mo, it was the first time a ship that big had been towed by a single tug on an open ocean tow. While I was aboard that ship, we set a couple of world records.
I was on the towing ship, USS Beaufort ATS-2, homeported at the time at Pearl Harbor. I was not part of the riding crew. I did stand watches on the towing winch, so I can officially say “I helped”.
As for my book, you will probably enjoy it. It was done in a format that makes it a comfortable read. Books that make me refer back and forth through the pages tend to frustrate me as a reader.
As for my wire rope problem, I chose to saturate the line in thinned Gorilla wood glue and then position it as I needed. We will see how that works. I am finding that it is best done section by section rather than the entire length at once.
Shadow Divers, Yes, I have read it. In fact I assisted another U-Boat author in his theory on how that boat was really killed. Spoiler alert, it wasn’t what the books says. Now, for other good books about U-boats, check out German Submarine U-1105 Black Panther, by Aaron Hamilton. I got the book and also picked up a Revell Type VII C/41 kit to go with it.
Have not decided whether to build it full or sunk.
I find stranded electrical wire makes pretty good wire rope. Most all of it is insulated, so you have to strip the insulation off. This is not the easiest to do without messing up the twist of the wire. If you take only a couple of inches off at a time it works pretty well, but it is a bit tedious. I forget the relationship between wire gauge and diameter, but there are charts of it online you can google.
