Rigging Planes with Sections of Wire - Works ?

ever think of sewing the rigging like fixing a hole? it's pretty easy and fast. try a lindberg gladiator, it has the holes and order mapped out.

A trick I learnt when making electronics projects is that single core wire stretches. The stuff used in electronics will stretch by around 10%. Two things happen when you do this - it goes slightly thinner (the insulation slides right off) and it goes absolutely straight and quite rigid. So when making wire links on PCB you simply cut a piece of insulation the exact length required, thread some wire though and you have an uber-neat link, dead straight and just the right size.

I've not tried using wire to rig but if I were I would try streching it first, obviously more gently because it is thinner because it would go straight and rigid.

As for colour. Well real rigging wires were wire. I doubt that they were often painted so I imagined that they started off the colour of fresh wire (silver, a little oxidised so not so bright). As time when by I imagine they would have got ingrained with oil, dirt, soot, exhaust, gunsmoke so would have become darker.

Cheers,

Nigel

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In the very early days it was a wire cable, but if you go looking at something like a Stearman you'll find an airfoil sectioned, solid metal "wire" that's tapered and threaded at each end with a jam nut and clevis. The color is generally raw aluminum or steel...stainless steel if it's a high-class job.

So...as always - depending on the subject you're building, you'll find something different. There are places out there where you can get airfoil sectioned styrene "rod" or strip that works quite nicely, and there is a company that makes etched flying wires. I've also heard of using fishing line, and I have some .3 mm carbon fiber stuff called "Wonder Wire" that I use - I forget where I got it.

Earliest planes through WW1 were rigged with cable (multistranded wire). Just about end of war, and through the twenties and even into the thirties came "flying wire), a single piece of metal with a somewhat streamlined shape.

For the former you can use a VERY thin electrical or other stranded wire, or a flexible solid wire. Solid wire is okay to simulate stranded cable in 1:72 or 1:48 scale. For 1:32 consider stranded wire. For the one-piece flying wire, thin stainless steel piano wire is frequently used. .020 is the smallest regularly available that is stiff enough to hold its shape. A little heavy for 1:72 but fine for 1:48 and 1:32 (heavier piano wire may be better for latter, however).

Alternatives in thread are grey thread for the cable type, or monofilament painted or dyed with silver for flying wires.

Rufus wrote in news:SbyQm.151306$5n1.22356@attbi_s21:

Precision Enterprises. P.O. Box 97F Springfield VT. 05156 Phone: 802-885-3094 after 5:00pm EST

Put Wonder Wire in your favorite browser. Very interesting results.

...now that's my kinda brace-up!

If you take some gray, black, or white cotton thread and spray it with Testors Metalizer and then pull that though a napkin a few times, that also makes a pretty convincing "stranded cable". Follow with a spritz of flat or gloss coat as usual to seal it. It'll also be a bit stiffer, which is a plus too.

Rufus wrote in news:LEzQm.155279$la3.35729@attbi_s22:

Stiff upper lip, what!