WW I Aircraft Rigging

Hello!

I don't think I can help you a lot with the rigging - my way of doing it would be to check surviving museum aircraft and try to duplicate that. As for the material, there are options - some do it using elastic thread, like nylon, that keeps itself tight. Hans von Hammer recommended a method in which you stretch sprue so that it's very thin, then cut and glue a length of it, and apply some heat (be careful!) and the plastic stretches a little giving you nice tight lines. I tried it once on a paper model of a 1:33 Sopwith Pup, it worked just beautiful.

As for the scale - first thing, that's a division sign, and it's there for a reason - like 1:72 or 1/72, for example. It simply means you take a measurement on the real thing and divide it by - in this case - 72. So 72 inches (is it 6 feet?) on the real thing are 1 inch on the model. You also have the option on scales like 4:1, when modelling small objects, where you enlarge the object, in this case 4 times.

Hope it helps, have a nice day

Paweł

Snafuras3

Have a look at my build of a Wingnut Wings kit

cs.finescale.com/.../153188.aspx

Also have a look in the group builds for a WW1 we did last year lots of info there too

Phil

snafuras03

Also, need help to recognize scales, i.e., 1x72 example (1 inch equals 72 feet?) and so on???? Appreciate any help, thanks, snafuras03.

Hi snafuras03.  I made this simple scale dimension calculator for my dad, and thought maybe it would be of use to you. (or anyone else who needs it) 

It's a simple spreadsheet that converts real feet and inches to scale inches.  You enter the original dimension and the scale you are working in and it gives you inches, rounded to the nearest 16th of an inch.

Here's the Open Office version:  http://1drv.ms/1liY9QS

Here's the Excel version:  http://1drv.ms/Pbz4MM

Let me know if you have any issues with the download.  I've never tried sharing something from my OneDrive account, so I'm not sure how this will work.

I broke open an ABS (Antilock Brake System) sensor and found an endless supply of fine copper wire. It works really well for aircraft rigging and is much less apt to break like sprue, or vary in thickness like stretched sprue.

Could you be a little more specific in the questions.  Are you looking for the arrangement of the various wires (i.e, the kit doesn't show enough)?  In the scale question, are you trying to find the right size for the material?  One thing I can say about most WW1 aircraft is that the wires were wire cable- the forged airfoil shaped flying wires were a post-war innovation, so stranded thread, if small enough diameter, is realistic looking.  Scale matters a lot. It is almost impossible to get wire or thread fine enough to be in scale for 1:72 and smaller, so you need to find other ways to tone down the visibility.

One mistake I see a lot is high contrast colors.  The cables rapdily weathered to a light to medium gray.  Avoid using white or black thread.  The high contrast makes them look bigger than they really are.  I like the  translucent monofilament for 1:72.  Also, I find fly tying thread is about the thinnest stuff you can get, at 5 mil.  Problem is, it is either white or black, and needs to be colored (I use marker pens).