Rigging with monofilament

I trim in two steps- first cut it with my sprue cutter.  Then trim further with my scalpel.  The scalpel blades are somewhat thinner than X-acto blades so you can bend them slightly like those flush trim saws.

I also only glue the bottom surface of the top wing.  I start at the top wing, put a drop of glue on the bottom surface hole, and pull the thread through.  That minimizes any glue buildup around the thread on the top surface of the top wing, the most visible surface.  I also treat the bottom wing opposite for same reason.  I pull the thread through, and while slightly slack, put a drop of CA on thread.  Then pull it through and put a closepin on it to maintain tension on thread while glue sets.  Trim later.

Don, that's pretty much how I did these fixtures. I'm beginning to think it is the thick mono that is the problem, probably would be fine with 2-4 pound test line. I might try drilling them out and replacing them with stretched sprue. 

This isn't my model, but you can see the piece I am trying to replicate with the thicker monofilament. 

And you can see in this photo that the rod is not as thick as it is depicted on the model.

I switched to this.  It's outstanding.   

https://www.uschivdr.com/products-in-detail/rigging/

I use 20 mil monofilament.  It is almost too hard to undersize rigging.  Let's see.  In 1:72 scale 60 mil full size would be less than 1 mil, 1:48 would be just over a mil.  125 mil cable would be only a little over a mil, and in 1:48 would be 2.5 mil.  Color has a lot to do with the size it appears to the eye.  I color the monofilament stuff with markers, but never white, silver or black.  That makes them look bigger than they really are.  Go light grey or dark grey.