Aircraft Antennas

Welcome aboard!
i make mine from stretched sprue.
take a scrap piece of your parts tree and hold it above a candle flame.
(not too low, you don't want to burn it. just let the rising heat do it's work)
rotate it with your fingers. when it begins to look glossy and soft,
pull your hands away from each other in a smooth motion.
the soft plastic will be drawn into a thin piece in the center.
with practice, you can make it turn out almost any diameter.

if you don't like the results try a few more and vary how far or how fast you pull the ends apart. don't bother trying to "re-stretch" stretched pieces. it does not work very well. (or go ahead and try; you'll see what i mean)

since the piece you made is the same styrene the kit is molded from, you can use the same paints and glue that you used on the kit.

and if your antenna ends up with a bit of sag after it's on, don't worry.
pass a flame under it until it sags a little, then leave it alone.
it will shrink up and pull tight.

the best thing about this technique is that each kit provides you w/ more sprue to practice with than you should need.

it's easier than it sounds, so give it a try.

good luck & welcome to the forum.
ed.

one or two pound fish line. Drill a hole (if possible) with a fine bit where each end goes. Superglue one end at a time, pulling it as tought as you can. Don't worry about getting it perfectly tight.

After the superglue dries, light a match. Let the match burn for a moment, then blow it out. Immediately hold the match under the fishline so the smoke drifts up and envelopes it. NOT TOO CLOSE or it'll burn through. The heat shrinks the fish line and it pulls tought.

Voila, a perfectly straight antenna:
http://www.inpayne.com/models/spitmk1.html

Hello Vmermilyea,

Something else you might try: I use (electric) guitar strings for the antennas that " stick out of the aircraft", size .008 (the finest gauge string) (in case you don't play guitar: in the better musical instrument shops you can buy seperate strings and won't have to acquire a whole set of six strings).
I use the smallest drilling bit to remove a bit of paint on the spot where I want the antenna attached, then dip one end of the piece of string in a drop of superglue and stick it where it belongs!
For the wire-like antennas I also use fishing line (and will try the blown- out- match- suggestion by John P. thanks for that!).

Good luck!

Gertjan

Good luck

HEY,
I agree with GEEJEEZ. I also build cars and it works great for that too. It is very easy to do. Also i have tried heating the end on and electric stovetop and just pushing it into the plastic until it goes in enough to stay. When it cools down the plastic hardens and holds it tight. I suggest practicing this before trying it as it is more permanent if you mess up. Hope this helps.

Randy

I use speaker wire, just cut it open and use 1-strand..silver is the best....It can be pulled tight and wound on each end..Looks like the real thing...good luck...Superglue

Get a spool of invisible thread, it coms in different colours and works perfect. I use a toothpick with a small amount of CA glue or superglue and carefully glue one end to the canopy or fuselage, when dry I carefully stretch the thread to the other attachment point and glue as well. When both sides are dry, if there is any slack you can heat your hobby knife or a flat head screwdriver with an open flame, I use a candle and place the heated knife beneath the thread and it will tighten up perfectly. The last detail is adding the insulators which I make with Micro Scale Krystal Clear. A very small amount touched onto the thread and carefully spread enough to make the insulator stretched instead of round looks convincing.

Here is a photo of ne of Chris Wauchop's 109's with the following method used.

For 1/48th scale I use 2 lb. fishing line and attach it with Micro Krystal Kleer cement. The cement dries very quickly and I find I don't have to try and drill holes in the leading edges of tail fins. By the way, I've also painted the line black by using a Tamiya flat black pen by pressing it down on the line on a piece of glass and running the line under it. To make the antenna taut after it's attached, I run a hair dryer along its length and it tightens up just fine.

I use old computer electical cables, i strip off the insulator (rubber or plastic) and one strand cut to size and paint. you can also use other electrical wirings/cords for that matter.

Hi wvermilyea,

I illustrated below, the peocess I use to manufacture (& tighten) aircraft antenna.... hope this helps..



Tally Ho
Frank

I like the fishing line method the best. Trust me, It is more forgiving than sprue, you don't have to melt any plastic and it is much much stronger. It also gives a more scale look to your model. I use fly fishing tippet or leader material. It's sold by diameter and strength. As an example I have some 8X line that is .003 diameter and 5X which is .006 diameter. They are tested for 1lb. and 4lb. respectively. You can get it nice and tight without worrying about it melting away. Wildwilliam describes the method perfectly in his post above. You can get a life time supply for about $3.00.
Good luck!
Dave

wvermilyea,

"Trust me", all the idea's are good ones, and an affective way to duplicate antenna material. You just experiment with the different idea's, and use the one that works best for you, for only you can determine that.

Merry Christmas,
Frank

Ernie Ball makes good guitar strings that are sold seperately as GeeJeeJ said.
You may want to unroll them and lay them out as they have a tendency to curl. Although, that may have no effect considering the length you will be using.

Randie --------> is an old rocker who survived the '60s!!!

personally i like stretched sprue (but i can never get it thin enough...). It's like payback for the times when the kit gave you a hard time (like when you forget to attatch the top turret to your B-17 -- on the other hand that may just be me... )