Howdy all!
I am building a 1/32 Renwal military wrecker. I am looking for scale 1.5 inch rope, and three inch chain. My searches have failed to provide results.
Can someone help me out?
Thanks,
Don
Barrel Depot does scale chain. For rope look for stuff at arts & crafts stores like Micheal’s or Hobby Lobby.
I get mine at both Hobby Lobby and Michaels. Go into the custom jewelry section and you will find several chains well suited for our hobby. I then paint and weather them to my liking.
I liberated a spool of “button and carpet” thread from my wife’s sewing room years ago. It stands in well for rope. It’s cotton wrapped polyester and has very little fuzz. It can be painted/weathered to represent steel cable as well. I may get sent packing from the forums for this, but check Jo Ann Fabrics.
you can also check FIRE MOUNTAIN GEMS, they’re a jewelery making catalog at FIRE MOUNTAIN GEMS,COM
There’s several companies that makes scale rigging rope for models so check with the ships forum for information on that.
try a cheep jewelry store they sell chain of different sizes, by the foot
It is actually pretty easy to make yourself. All you need is some copper wire of your desired size, something rectangular the size you want you links to be (anything from Stanley Staples for a staple gun to the gigantic packing box staples) and a sharp pair of pointed scissors (though a stout Xacto blade could work). Spiral wrap the wire strand around the staple, remove it, then cut down the top of the spiral. What you will get is individual links that you can now link together using tweezers. I have used this method to make chain lengths as long or short as I need, and using various sized staples and wire you can create any size chain desired.
Brian
1/35th inch is 0.02875"; 3’ is 0.08571" Dividing that into 1 inch–a common unit of fine chain measure, that’s 11.66 links per inch. You could probably use 15 link-per-inch chain.
Check with the model ship suppliers, they have resin chain in oval shape, with stud links like heavy chain ought to,
As to line, 1.5 diameter line scales to 0.04286, a bit larger than 1/16" (it’s right at 3/64" if you really need to know).
Looking at my wire gauge chart, 18 AWG twisted wire would suit–and not have any fuzz like thread would have.
Now, in some fairness, your question double-clutched me a bit. See, naval chain is “wire sized” meaning the effective thickness of the material bent to make the link, not the overall size of the link. So, 3" chain would have links around 9" wide and a foot long–destroyer anchor chain–and would be 2-3 links per inch at 1/35.
Further, in the days before mantled rope, the line was made up from strands, then ropes, then hawsers and then into cables, making them very had to size by diameter. So, they were sized by circumference. So, a 1.5" line in the days of sail was only about 0.477" in diameter. Which is a very fine 0.01364" (smaller than 40 gauge wire) in 1/35 scale.
Trumpeter makes a nice set of scale chain that works good for 1/35 stuff.
You might want to check out galeforcenine.com . Go to the online store and click on gaming assessories. They have a number of rope and chain selections.
knox
Hello Everyone, and thank you all for your help!
I finally went with chain from Mircro-Mark. A little expensive, but not as expensive as having my crew wait for me while I am at Hobby Lobby (I am an outdoor contractor, and side trips get expensive with a crew!).
For the rope, I found some waxed thread I used for my Awl For All, a leather sewing awl.
For the hooks on the elephant chains, I used some solder, a filed a tip after shaping it, and attached it with some heat shrink tubing the chain.
The old wrecker is coming along nicely! I wish I could post a photo.
Don
Also check out Michigan Toy Company or Micro Mark.
For photos, it’s a two-step process.
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Pick a photo-hosting site, like photobucket, flickr, or the like (plenty of free sites to choose from).
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Open another browser tab to FSM. and go to a thread–or create a new post.
You will want to select Use Rich Formatting.
Now, select the image you want. The photo host site will have an image or html link for the images (you may have to right-click the image). Highlight the link, and copy it using CTRL+C, or COPY from the right-click context menu.
Go back to FSM, select the Img icon, which will open a sub-window, Paste (or CTRL+V) the link into that box. And hit enter. The image ought then show in the reply window with any text.
Repeat as needed.
It’s far longer to type out (particularly while trying to remember Wintel versus mac subtleties); it’s really quite easy to do–once you have the hosting sorted.