Comparatively scale wire rope

U boats? No thanks. AFA I am concerned, the only interesting U boat is a sunk one full of dead DKM sailors.

But I do like reading about diving, fact and fiction.

I find stranded electrical wire makes pretty good wire rope.  Most all of it is insulated, so you have to strip the insulation off.  This is not the easiest to do without messing up the twist of the wire. If you take only a couple of inches off at a time it works pretty well, but it is a bit tedious.  I forget the relationship between wire gauge and diameter, but there are charts of it online you can google.

Shadow Divers, Yes, I have read it. In fact I assisted another U-Boat author in his theory on how that boat was really killed. Spoiler alert, it wasn't what the books says. Now, for other good books about U-boats, check out German Submarine U-1105 Black Panther, by Aaron Hamilton. I got the book and also picked up a Revell Type VII C/41 kit to go with it.

Have not decided whether to build it full or sunk.

Nino, that is HMCS Protecteur being towed by USNS Sioux in March 2014.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMCS_Protecteur_(AOR_509)

Did you ever read "Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson? It's a pretty hairy story.

I was on the towing ship, USS Beaufort ATS-2, homeported at the time at Pearl Harbor. I was not part of the riding crew. I did stand watches on the towing winch, so I can officially say "I helped".

As for my book, you will probably enjoy it. It was done in a format that makes it a comfortable read. Books that make me refer back and forth through the pages tend to frustrate me as a reader. 

As for my wire rope problem, I chose to saturate the line in thinned Gorilla wood glue and then position it as I needed. We will see how that works. I am finding that it is best done  section by section rather than the entire length at once.

A couple of things I've been too distracted to comment on this weekend.

Thank you for your service. It means a lot.

Welcome, your knowledge is most impressive and helpful here.

It would be an honor indeed, and a once in a lifetime experience; to sail on that tow.

You say you were on the ship? The Missouri or the tow boat?

I looked at your book about diving the Arizona wreck and intend to get it from the Museum. Supports a good cause too.

Bill

Weight / drag is part of the calculations for the chain and towline. Length is, in simple terms, long enough to keep it from running into you if you have to stop and also keep the tug and tow "in step" without overly hampering maneuverability.

When we towed the Big Mo, it was the first time a ship that big had been towed by a single tug on an open ocean tow. While I was aboard that ship, we set a couple of world records.

I used to watch the barge tows come in and out of SF Bay all the time.

Big Crowley tugs. 

The rope would go down off of the stern of the tow tractor into the water and come up a couple of hundred yards back to the barge.

You'd know this stuff, but I'm sure there's some magic about the length of rope, the weight of the tow and the operating conditions.

I had the pleasure of being on the crew that towed the USS Missouri BB-63 from Puget Sound down to Long Beach for it's re-activation back in the 1980's. Now that was a towing job!

Thank you for that.  I think I will never do a towing dio though, even if I can remember all the steps, method, and names.  

For me maybe a nice " Run'em aground and strip'em of parts". Kind of a Pirate adventure thing.  Grandkids love Pirates.

Thanks for all your sharing of knowledge and experience.

     Jim.

That sag you are referring to is call 'catenary', and in that picture you posted they are just starting to stream the tow. Normally you will have at minimum, one shot (90 feet) of chain and then an intermediate tow cable or the tow cable from the towing vessel. Occasionally they will also put a length of large double braid in there too. The chain and the double braid are there to absorb shock. In my case, I've got the primary tow leg (chain) hanging at the bow, and the back-up leg (chain and messenger cable) strung along the starboard side. It's the messenger cable (wire rope) that I'm trying to duplicate, as black thread just doesn't lay right. 

Just a suggestion for those doing a larger scale towing diorama...

A Guitar "wound" string can act and look a bit like a steel cable for a towing Dio, depending on scale-size.  It can present the slight sag that is sometimes seen. I think the smallest diameter is .022" though.

The stiff string idea is probably best for that Lindberg Minesweeper model.  The Guitar string will not bend into a small diameter coil or lay out similar to wire rope.  It does not work on a cable reel either.  It snaps back "atcha"!

If anyone doing a full diorama, here is an example of the sag I mentioned.

 Nino

Syren Ship Models has really nice quality pruducts. This may sound really dumb, but they make nice looking rope.

Assuming that you are holding to the scale of the kit (far from always the case- I've gone up 100% and down 50% on bashes), 1" wire rope would be 0.008", 2" would be 0.016" etc.

I find the rope sold here:

https://www.syrenshipmodelcompany.com/miniature-rope.php

to be the most realistic and best coiling I can find.

I suggest you glue it, otherwise it will be hard to dust later.

Diluted Elmers works well.

Bill