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surgical wires for rigging ww1planes

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  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, May 18, 2003 11:39 AM
I have a pack of the stuff, passed to me by a friend. The brand name is;
ETHICON, size 5-0 & there is a code on the tube label; DS - 35.
My friend probably got it from Hannants in the UK, they are on the web, but beware their shipping prices!
I just used it to rig a 1/45th scale swordfish & have used it to rig WW1 planes for my friend. It's fairly easy to work with, but takes some planning as once bent, it's hard to straighten. I found the easiest way to work with it is drill through the lower half of the topwing. Then drill right through the lower wing. Cut to length, about 1 inch too long. Superglue into top wing, making 1/4 inch bend on end first, this gives a bit of an anchor in there. leave overnight, next day, put a drop of superglue on the free end and feed it quickly though the lower wing, then clip a Boston (USA) / Bulldog (UK) clip to it and let it hang, gravity will tension the wire and hopefully the top bit won't pull out! Cut to length next day as close to the wing underside as possible using a sharp scalpel.
This method works but is guaranteed to send you blind or insane!, especially on something with lots of rigging, such as the 1/72 Gotha I built!
But when it's done, and you can sit back, the result is far better than stretched sprue and more to scale than phone wire, especially in 1/72.
Her's a thought, what about ordinary power cable wire (multistrand), it will be more flexible than surgical wire (& Cheaper) and so long as it's silver in colour, the above method should work, and look good.
Happy Rigging!
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 17, 2003 5:10 PM
demono69. Thanks for the help will try both and let you know. I have a couple of old phones that are in my basement will fish them out!!!

quogue.
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 10, 2003 10:26 PM
quogue,

The 2 suggestions that I have would be either:

1) Fishing line. It's light, flexible, comes in several thicknesses, and is fairly cheap. Only problem is that it requires painting.

2) Stripped telephone wire. Also cheap, but does require a bit more work. Bonus is that you don't have to paint it if it's already silver.

Hope this helps.

demono69
  • Member since
    November 2005
surgical wires for rigging ww1planes
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 10, 2003 8:59 PM
I saw some beautifully rigged ww1 planes with surgical wire. Does anybody know where I can find this type of wire?. I went to my local pharmacy and they thought I had gone insane for asking about it .I model in 1/72 if you have any other suggestion to wire (beside guitar strings and piano wire )please pass it on.Cool [8D]Thanks.
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