Hi guys -

My first post. I've been modelling for most of my life (I'll be 65 next month) and, after retirement will finally have the time to devote to my love of early WW2 and between the wars airplanes. But I have a long time problem that I've never really gotton a handle on. BIPLANE RIGGING!!

Could some of you guys briefly describe some of your techniques, or point me to a website - anything?

I've done it, but never very well and I have a 1/48 model of a Supermarine Stranraer that really is intimidating me.

Good rigging can make or break a model. Any help is sincerly appreciated.

Hi Steve!

Welcome to armorama! I hope that you'll enjoy it here!

I wrote this little piece about a rigging technique that I think is quite easy and gives great results!

Don't forget to post your results!

Cheers!

One of my Club-(IPMS Dunde)- members has written a paper on "Rigging"..............send me your E-M addy and I will send you a copy
aye
BARV
(GOSMG)

First, you should plot all the rigging lines and strut locator holes you will need to work with. Planning ahead using references and plan views will ensure your success. Pre-drill all pilot holes for each end of the struts and the rigging wires. Don’t be afraid to take notes. There should be two holes for each wire and each strut. Drill the strut locator holes and note that sometimes a strut may share the same hole as another intersecting strut. For instance the Nieuport 11 or 17 or the Albatros D.III- Va types. Note also that lines will sometimes share the same anchor hole as well. At low speed drill straight through the adjacent fuselage or wing location next to the strut sockets at the appropriate angle. These pilot holes should follow the entry angle of the specific rigging strand into the wing area adjacent to the strut locator holes. Going from point A to point B it should be a straight line even through the wing. Note also that I don’t advocate drilling into any plastic or resin strut as this only serves to weaken it. Most real aircraft employed flange plates on the strut end caps to attach rigging lines.

When constructing “biplanes or triplanes ” whatever scheme you decide to do, remember to 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. Now measure and mark the locations for each hole and drill straight through the wing the rigging holes will be about 1/16 of an inch away from the strut holes. When drilling the rigging holes note that they should be next to the strut at the appropriate angle. There should be two holes for each strut and each rigging strand. Note also that one hole can possibly hold upto 5 strands of 5-8 mil easily. Once your wings are drilled and partially finished (painted or lozenge decals.) I will usually pin the lower wings to the fuselage fillets using brass rods inserted into pre-drilled holes

The next step is to add the struts. Struts being the bane and pain, the war-cry of the neophyte modeler is - “I can’t do that, it has all those struts!” Just take your time. It gets easier with practice and then it goes by pretty quickly. Most of the time I will either replace kit strut items with modified or extruded brass sections (Like Aeroclub’s “STRUTZ”) or drill holes in the kit strut ends and insert and secure brass pins into the these holes. This is not for the rigging but to insert into the corresponding strut locator hole. You will usually have to drill the holes in the wings deeper than what the kit manufacturer provides to allow the exposed ends of the brass pins to slide into the factory strut locator positions. This will reinforce your work and also gives your struts an adjustable (by bending) pivot that works to your advantage, especially when your kit has dihedral, forward or reverse stagger. Bring these components together with the fuselage using a temporary ‘Lego’ block jig and let the assembly dry thoroughly. The referenced jig keeps everything lined up correctly.

Now once you have the struts in place and all rigging holes are found to be open and ready to take the strands begin your rigging. From the top view, nose to tail draw an imaginary line that will divide the aircraft down centerline. Do one side of the aircraft wings at a time. Complete the pilot’s left side of the aircraft then do the pilot’s right side. I don’t advocate using one long continuous run of monofilament to make several runs (A to B to C to D...) For me, in most cases its one strand for one run (A to B, C to D and etc.) For the rigging use an .80 gauge (the smallest possible) drill bit in a motor tool. The key to working with monofilament is start by anchoring the monofilament lines by the fuselage lower longeron and the lower ends of the interplane strut locations and move out the length of the lower wing. Now, there can be some exceptions. For instance on the Albatros D.III - D.Va kits there are four cables at each lower wing root. You may want to reverse this process and start in the top wing and work toward the lower wings. This keeps the cluster of strands from getting tangled up in the capillary action of the cyanoacrylate glue.

Now invert the model and using spring action clothes pins to clip on the strands once their through the pre-drilled holes in the upper wing area. You can use an accelerator to dry the glue quicker but this must be managed carefully (most of theses are known carcinogens.} Normally I just take my time to ensure the anchored strands are completely dry. Attach one clothes pin for one strand with the wooden clothes pins suspended under the model, their free weight pulling the strands tight. Then you just put one drop of thin type super glue in the hole and let thoroughly dry. Don’t use metal hemostats on the small 5-8 mil as they can over stress 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 and then carefully scrape any glue spots from the bare plastic / resin. Now finish these surfaces to suite your chosen profile. NOTE!!! When you are scraping away extra glue or secured monofilament ends be sure to hold the wing specifically that your working with. If your holding the bottom wing and working on the top it will cause undo stress on the struts and rigging.

Good Luck JackFlash

Hello Steve, and welcome to Armorama. I have nothing to contribute, but want to thank you for asking the question. I am getting ready to start on a couple of WWI planes myself, and need lots of help in this area myself. Please let us see the results of your labor, and once again, welcome

Mike

Hi Steve welcome to Armorama
I'm not in a position to give you any advice on this area of modelling, as I have yet to attempt it myself. I will soon be building my first WWI aircraft though, a Bristol F2.B, and I will be rigging it in much the same way as Stephen (Jackflash) discribes.
Thanks for the detailed instructions Stephen
Mal

hi steve! i recently built a DH2 which was the mother of all rigging jobs, i use a similar technique to the one described by jackflash (who is the gaffer of WW1aircraft imho) i think though that a stranraer is jumping in at the deep end a bit, so i would suggest building something with less complicated rigging and building up some experiance until a DH2 is'nt intimidating at all :-) off the top of my head these aircraft have progressively more rigging,
fokker Dr1
fokker albatros
sopwith camel
fokker eindecker
avro 504
hope this helps

WELL!!!!!.........Where do I begin!!?

Thanks to everyone for the help! I was at work when I read all the replies and havn't yet had time to check out more than the suggestion to visit the Hyper-scale site. I found several excellent descriptions of a coule different methods there.

I will check out each and every one of the articles mentioned.

It's really odd how someting so simple can pass one by. I never thought about drilling holes all the way thru the wings. I was going to try to anchor them strictly thru a hole halfway thru each wing.

As I said, I havn't looked at all the material suggested so there may be a simpler, better way waiting for me to find but I feel a great deal more confident than I did before. Thanks again. It may be awhile but I will post pictures.

Phil-




You might find it amusing that I selected the Stranraer over a 1/72 Handley Page HP-42 because I thought it easier.

Anthony Fokker, upon first seeing the HP-42, said that it was the only airplane he'd ever seen that had a built in headwind.

1/72 H.P. 42, now you're talking! i have a gotha Gv in my stash i might build this year for the bombs away campaign