Cutty Sark Revell 1:96 rigging material

Modeling Subjects Ships
1

I was wondering if the supplied rigging material is cotton thread, and if polyester would be any better or other recommendations. Thanks

2

Iā€™m sure ship builders will chime in but Iā€™ve read EZ Line is something they use. I recently started using it for antennas on my 1/48 aircraft

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3

Iā€™m pretty sure EZ Line has line specifically for ships. Whether that would be for a 1/96 scale ship I canā€™t say. Iā€™ve been using the stuff like @keavdog mentions in all of my aircraft for long enough that I recently bought a second roll.

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4

One thing I do is coat white sewing thread with Elmerā€™s glue between my fingertips. This does two things. It gets rid of any fuzzies, and makes the lines look more taunt.
EZ line is an excellent idea, and works great.

5

You can run the thread over a piece of wax to coat it, too.

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6

There is an aftermarket set photo-etch shrouds an ratlines for that kit. It is really nice.

7

EZ Line is not the rigging line for REALISTIC rigging. Too shiny, doesnā€™t come in enough sizes, and is a bit stretchy. Polyester is a better alternative. Go to ModelExpo and search under ā€œFittingsā€, and scroll down to ā€œRigging.ā€ You will see a multitude of various sizes, colors and manufacturers. Here is the direct link: https://modelexpo-online.com/rigging. On my Constitution I have about 2 dozen different size ropes, from big anchor ropes all the way down to small hand ropes. And running the line over a beeswax block before you install it will help protect it.

Hope that helps.

Bob

8

Canā€™t remember where I got it from, but the lycra rigging from Infini Models comes in various sizes for different scales. Used it on my 1/700 Destroyer; super fine material!

Infini Black Lycra Rigging - ģøķ”¼ė‹ˆė¬¼ģ‚°

Rob
Iwata Padawan

9

Thanks a lot for that. I have to try that next time.

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10

Thanks for the tip on the rigging line from ModelExpo Bob. Iā€™m going to look into that line.

11

Itā€™s probably cotton. And it will want a lot of rubbing over a beeswax cake to get the stray threads to lay down.
Getting Lycra or similar line will help prevent all that ā€œshagginess.ā€
At 1:96 itā€™s going to be near impossible to spot the differences between the 12-14 sizes of line CS would have used. Human eye will likely only ā€œseeā€ about four sizes.

To add to the confusion, on Cutty Sark, the sheets of the upper topsails are chain, and chain really too fine for 1/96. Also she was of an ear where they were using a lot of iron wire rope. Which ought have a much different ā€œlookā€ than the natural fiber line used.

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12

You can paint most rigging materials. Shrouds and ratlines tarred on 1:1 scale.

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