Fine rigging can make a small aircraft or ship model look right, yet it is one of the trickiest touches to get. This tutorial tackles the problem with material every plastic kit builder already has: leftover sprue. The idea of turning scrap into aerials, antenna wires, or biplane and ship rigging seems a very smart use of the offcuts that usually end up in the bin.
The method itself is pleasingly simple. A spare piece of sprue is cut and held over a flame from a tea light candle or a handheld lighter, rotated gently just above the flame to heat the plastic evenly without burning. Once it softens, both ends are pulled apart, stretching the sprue into a thin, flexible filament. A craft knife then cuts the filament free from the thicker sprue handles on a green grid cutting mat, and from there the strands can be trimmed to size, painted and shaped for the model.
The finished example is a British World War II aircraft in camouflage paint, wearing RAF roundels. An antenna wire runs from a mast behind the canopy back to the tail fin, a tidy demonstration of what the technique delivers. The completed airplane is displayed on the cutting mat at the end.
One trade-off is worth flagging: stretched sprue is known to sag over time, something to keep in mind on a finished model. The safety note also stands out, since adult supervision is required because of the open flame. The maker has said they keep invisible nylon thread on hand as well, which sounds like a sensible backup for delicate rigging jobs.
Project by Model Minutes. Watch it on their YouTube channel: