stringing up ship mast.

Well, it's about time!

Just relax about it. Rigging a ship from WW2 is a good place to start. Most of the rigging is either stays for the stacks, or communications antennae. Followed by the light halyards used to raise and lower signals. I rarely get as far as those.

Don't use fabric thread, Use nylon line or stretched sprue. If you use nylon line, find some that is really thin, the kind used to tie flies. Going to tackle stores is fun.

Superglue is your friend. Drill a small hole in the deck where the line originates from, plunk in a tiny amount of glue on a toothpick, and stick in the end of the line. Do all of those first.

When dry, take the line up to the mast and tie it tightly. Move it around with the tip of something pointy until it's nice and tight and looks neat, then dab a little glue on it. Cut the extra off much later.

If you can leave the caps off hte stacks till last it makes the stack stays easy because when you bring the line up from the deck, drill a small hole where it meets the stack, thread it through, pull it tight out the top and glue from the inside. In little to no time you'll be clicking.

Just take it in layers and don't worry too much. Any rigging is better than none and you have lots of models to practice with.

Thank you bondoman, That is what I was looking for, I do have a lot of Ships, all 1/350 scale, all but two are WWII, I have two 1/350 scale Mordern Enterprise ships, I build two models a month, And I was looking at them, and they didn't look finished to me with out the riggin on them, I thank you alot, you were a great help, I'll post the pictures of them when I,m done. :-)

I use this thread.

http://www.jsflyfishing.com/cgi-bin/item/TW-030020-0000/63500/UNI-Products-Caenis-Thread.html

It ties nice and tight and doesn't fight you like most fishing line.

At 1/350 it mics out to about a scale 3/4" which I think is pretty good.

Fine thread is getting hard to find, because sewing as a hobby is in decline.  For 1:700 ships use monofilament thread, the translucent kind, which makes it look smaller in diameter than it really is.  For 1:350, stranded thread is okay as long as it is small diameter. Model Expo, a modeling supplier catering to sailing ship modelers, sells small diameter thread.  Problem is, they do not sell any gray thread.

For modern (20th century) ships the standing rigging is steel cable, best represented by a medium or light gray.  Sewing craft stores are then your best bet, but small diameter gray thread is hard to come by.

Do not use black or white thread.  They create an extreme contrast that makes them look larger diameter than they really are.

Sometimes when there is no good way to attach/terminate a line, use a pin vise and a small drill, say around a #70 to 72, put a tiny dot of CA on the end fo the thread and just stick it in the hole.

Fly tying thread comes in a variety of colors, gray, black, white, brown, even green, orange or yellow.  

If you use fly tying or other thin thread, while you are buying it, get the little clamps that fly tiers use.  They are handy for holding a length of rigging in place while the glue dries.  The weight of the clamp is just right for holding a tension on the line.

Fred