Brass wire for tow cables - supplier?

What about guitar strings?

Or picture hanging kits?

If you have a Micheal's craft store close by go there I get what is called Beadalon jewlers use it for making bracelets and necklesses. It comes in several sizes I use .012' for WW1 aircraft rigging and for Armor tow cables. Also it's plastic coated so it won't rust on your model over time.                ACESES5  ON BENCH HASAGAWA 1/48 HURRICANE MKII            

For very realistic (i.e. not that stuff that comes with the kit or typical picture hanging wire) go for OOK brand.  Look here

www.network54.com/.../Cheap...+and+good+looking...+tow+cables

Get “makings” (esp. A. C. Moore, Michaels).
Shop selections of bead chain and chain.

No project is so bad that with hard work and careful
attention to detail it cannot be made worse.

T26E4

For very realistic (i.e. not that stuff that comes with the kit or typical picture hanging wire) go for OOK brand.  Look here

www.network54.com/.../Cheap...+and+good+looking...+tow+cable

         THAT           

         is the way to go.

          $3 for 9 feet.

Jerry’s Artarama

Brand: OOK® Picture Hanging

Located in: Home, Framing and Matting, Framing Hardware and Equipment, Hanging Equipment, Picture Wire

Picture Wire fits through screw eyes on back of frame for classy and stylish hanging.Braided Professional Galvanized Picture Wire - #2 for small to medium size pictures up to 24×36", maximum frame weight of 12 lbs; #3 for larger size pictures, maximum frame weight of 17 lbs.DuraCoat Gold Plastic Coated Picture Wire - #2 for small to medium size pictures up to 24×36", maximum frame weight of 15 lbs; #3 for larger size pictures, maximum frame weight of 20 lbs.

Hello!

If we're talking tow cables, you don't really want any stiff wire here, unless it's going to be really straight on the model. If you want add a little droop between the points where the cable is supported, you want a soft material - that would be copper. You can make it even softer by heating it up and letting cool. And the cheapest source of copper wire is the electric industry - get even a small length of elastic electric cable and you have a lot of copper there. Sometimes even for free - like a power cable of an appliance to be scrapped. Hope it helps, have a nice day

Paweł

I've been trying to think of a way to scratch build a winch for a 1/24 civilian Jeep kit I have in the stash. Winch cables are quite a bit thinner than an AFV tow cable. I wonder if this method will still work.

T26E4

For very realistic (i.e. not that stuff that comes with the kit or typical picture hanging wire) go for OOK brand.  Look here

www.network54.com/.../Cheap...+and+good+looking...+tow+cables

Hmmmm that looks vaguely familiar

Just keep in mind it is still fairly stiff even after annealing but not so much it won't work.

Here is a compassion between the OOK for the main cable and this other stuff for the track cable I found shortly afterward I found the OOK.  The OOK stuff is about 0.04" and the other is about 0.025.  I find it in a crawl space and I think it might be used for security systems.  It is a paired wire, one copper and the other silver colored and both twisted   As long as you get the plastic sheath off with affecting the twist.. it will twist tight very neatly.  And this one is soft and flexible after annealing.  I think the size is 22 gauge but its hard to read on the wire.

I wouldn't worry about it being too stiff; actual tow cables are very stiff, at least the modern ones are. Any bend or kink in a modern tow cable renders it unusable due to safety precautions and it is replaced.

I have used both plastic moulded cables for use on the deck and sidewall of my Dragon Tiger I Ausf. E but when I have looked into using proper metal kit supplied cables for use on a build it's nigh on impossible to get the loops out of each length to render the lengths straight - like fishing nylon the wire has memory so always returns to it's original circular coiled poistion.

I actually took one length from a Dragon kit and attached a heavy weight to the end (1/4ib's lead). I left this hanging for a whole week and it hardly did a thing!

The best wire I have found was in a Lion Roar DIY Tow-Cable kit. This was excellent stuff and you get to make up some impressive looking tow cables too.

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/lionroar/le35092.html

Hope this helps!

Ben

Rob - take a look at the post above yours - isn't the bend in the tow cable on the side of that Tiger radical?

Tim - good luck with your build, have a nice day

Paweł