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Early Aviation
Discuss World War I and the early years of aviation thru 1934.
Rigging a string bag??
Red4
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California, United States
Joined: April 01, 2002
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Posted: Monday, July 02, 2007 - 07:15 AM UTC
I have recently been bitten by the bug of WWI aircraft and have been gathering up oodles and oodles of these cool kits up in the corner of my shop. My question is this.... is there a method to rigging these things? Individual lines.....or one continous one that is cut to length once done??? How do you guys do it??!! I have a few kits that for practicing on and getting the hang of it so I'm hoping somebody will share their method(s)
/ secrets with me so I can get to building these things. Also what materials do you guys/gals use? Any tricks? Any kits to stay away from? Thanks in advance. "Q"
JackFlash
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Colorado, United States
Joined: January 25, 2004
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Posted: Monday, July 02, 2007 - 07:22 AM UTC
Greetings Red4;

Check out this thread on rigging just scroll down to;

". . .First of all leave the top wing upper surface and the lower wing under surface unfinished. Why you ask? These are the areas that you need to apply glue to. An open flat surface is easier to work with than the narrow area between the wings.

Drill straight through the wing next to the strut at the appropriate angle. There should be two holes for each strand. Note also that one hole can possibly hold upto 5 strands. The key to working with monofilament is start by the upper cabane strut locations and move out and down with your strands. Used spring action clothes pins to clip on the strands once their through the lower wing area. One clothes pin for one strand. This pulls the strand(s) tight and then you just put one drop of thin type super glue in the hole. Don’t use metal hemostats as they can over stress the small 5-8 mil strands and after your complete it will go slack and heat application won’t tighten it permanently.

When your finished rigging use a sharp #11 blade and clip all ends of the secured strands. Then scrap any glue spots off the plastic and finish to suite your chosen profile.

The other choice is ( I prefer blackened brass) fine wire. For 1/48 and smaller try .006-.008. For larger scales try .015-.020 and up. Brass is best choice for short runs of 1½ and smaller. Brass has weight and will tend to sag over a period of time. Turnbuckles can be manufactured in scale, it just take patience. In smaller scales you can simply replicate turnbuckles with an application of thicker gel super glue then paint when dry.

Struts are the bane and pain. The battle-cry of the neophyte modeler - “I can’t do that, it has all those struts!” Several methods are used with struts. I will either replace kit items with modified brass sections or put brass rod in all the ends of the kit struts. This reinforces your work but also gives your struts an adjustable (by bending) pivot that works to your advantage, especially when your kit has dihedral, forward or reverse stagger. When you have all strut locator holes in the right places and the cabane struts are fixed at the right angles, everything else should go great. . ."
Red4
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California, United States
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Posted: Monday, July 02, 2007 - 08:00 AM UTC
Stephen,
Thanks for the info. I will read it over ............and over again I'm sure. What pound of monofilament do you reccomend for the rigging? I'm guessing here, but 2lb or lighter? Thanks again for the help. "Q"
goldstandard
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California, United States
Joined: March 29, 2007
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Posted: Monday, July 02, 2007 - 08:49 AM UTC
2lb is usually what I use. I also recently bought some smoke colored invisible sewing thread that I plan on trying.
JackFlash
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Colorado, United States
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Posted: Monday, July 02, 2007 - 12:13 PM UTC
Greetings all; as goldstandard said smoke coloured invisible sewing thread 8 mil is good for 1/48. Two lbs test fishing line probably ok for 1/48. I know people who use 1 lbs test fishing line for 1/72 and thats plenty.
Red4
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California, United States
Joined: April 01, 2002
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Posted: Monday, July 02, 2007 - 02:02 PM UTC
Duly noted. Thanks for all the help guys. "Q"
JimMrr
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Ontario, Canada
Joined: January 03, 2007
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Posted: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 - 03:16 PM UTC
Iv done plenty of biplanes,including Aeroclubs FE2B using my wifes hair...hers is thick and black. Its perfect I think because hair lasts forever,and you can tie it easily and hide the knots under paint. The method works well,and these models have shown well in the contests Iv taken them to,bringing home awards. Its the only rigging media I use.
JackFlash
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Colorado, United States
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Posted: Saturday, January 05, 2008 - 02:27 PM UTC

Quoted Text

In a PM on 2008-01-05 19:49, JimMrr wrote:
I noticed an earlier thread you were involved in discussing rigging material. I have been using my wifes hair for a few years now with great success.Hers is black and quite thick...good scale representation in my estimation.I have noticed that sometimes it seems to lose its tension after a few years in spots,but that could be my rigging style and not the material itself.

I tend to find a suitable strut and tie a half hitch discreetly at the joint, apply superglue,and repeat at the next junction. I ues a small darning needle I made from a cocktail toothpic and a length of curved florist wire taped to the end.

I am just curious what your impressions of this tecnique are.

S THANK you for your offer of help on the SABLATNIG. I have a thing for obscure aircraft...my other project in lineup is a Sopwith folder..cheers



Greetings JimMrr !

I had a mind to respond earlier to your comments on the rigging thread.but have just been so busy lately. I have a website where I offer "How to" articles on WWI aviation modeling subjects. The rigging article is one of my best sellers. I was introduced to hair as a rigging medium about 20 years ago. It has one small problem, when it loses tension you can't get it back using a low heat source like monofilament. Even monofilament can do this if you use metal hemostats instead of wooden clothes pins. My wife is Italian and her hair used to be very dark And I would raid her hairbrush. Colour treated hair tends to go slack even sooner. So I stick with monofilament and now to do the thicker RAF wires I am starting to use Kevlar thread. See my Bristol F.2b thread, "Shipshape in Bristol Fashion." Welcome to the Aerodrome! Model On!

Augie
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British Columbia, Canada
Joined: May 13, 2003
KitMaker: 711 posts
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Posted: Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 01:24 PM UTC
Take a peek at these two articles that were on another site:

http://ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2002/11/stuff_tech_rigging.htm

and

http://ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2003/08/stuff_tech_rigging.htm

Hope they can help you.


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