1:600 Funnel Stays

I have always used fine fishing line.

Bill

I would heartily recommend stretched sprue. If nothing else, it'll save you the grief of having to drill holes.

It's easiest with a pair of gently-gripping cross-lock tweezers. [If they grab too hard, they'll kink your line when you pick it up.] I measure out my lines, then pick up the line with the tweezers and dip one end in a little puddle of white glue, then touch it to the funnel location, You can then "swing" the free end into position (a toothpick is handy for this), apply a tiny dab of the white glue with the tip of the toothpick, and nudge the line end into the white glue. The white glue shrinks as it dries, and dries clear, so usually no touch-up or painting is necessary. An added benefit is that if you need to move or replace a line for some reason, you can just "pop" the end loose with a gentle pressure, or moisten the join and it will loosen after a few seconds.

If you pull nice straight runs of stretched sprue, your lines will look fine as is. If you need to tighten lines a bit, I've found that lighting a toothpick, then blowing out the flame, will give a great tiny ember that will tighten the sprue lines nicely. The white glue is quite strong once set, so pulling loose when tightening lines is rarely a problem.

I haven't tried that small a scale app of stays.

But at 1/350 and for smaller funnels in that scale, I've had good luck with nylon paint brush bristles. The kind you'd paint a house with. I have a very good quality brush with bristles that are about 3" long. They are clear, white and black and vary from oval to faceted to round. but there are thousands of them. i find that if I cut off a dozen or so, I can usually find a couple of nice thin, straight and round ones.

They do taper at the end, but if you only need an inch or so, you can cut off the tip. I've done this for the flying wires on smaller 1/72 biplanes as well.

I have obtained some very fine monofilament thread from an online place catering to fly fishermen who make their own flies. It is 5 mil, half of what I usually use on 1:350, so it should work great. Comes in white or black- I'd use black.

I used 6/0 fly tying thread, but it was very tedious.  After painting the funnels but before mounting them, drill the necessary holes with a small bit in a pin vice.  This is also best done before you glue the decks down so you can secure the thread to the underside. Put each length of thread through from the outside of the funnel, then out the bottom.  When you have then all there, tie them all together at the bottom and pull them all tight evenly.   After the funnel is secured to the deck, thread the lower ends through the deck holes and secure tightly.

OOPs, sorry about the double post.

Fred

I used 6/0 fly tying thread, but it was very tedious.  After painting the funnels but before mounting them, drill the necessary holes with a small bit in a pin vice.  This is also best done before you glue the decks down so you can secure the thread to the underside. Put each length of thread through from the outside of the funnel, then out the bottom.  When you have them all there, tie them all together at the bottom and pull them all tight evenly.   After the funnel is secured to the deck, thread the lower ends through the deck.  Don't pay any mind to my funnel color, it should be more orange.   Fred

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone.

Fred - Your Mauretania is great, even if the funnel color is a bit off.  Beautiful build.  In any event, I've been told that the funnel color tended to change a bit due to the effects of weathering and heat.

I have a Revell 1:570 Titanic kit that I'm going to use as a test bed to see which technique works best for me and will post some pictures.   I just happen to have some .012 monofilament line in the garage, and don't think the fish will mind too much if I divert some of it.

Have a great Memorial Day!

Mike

One neat thing about monofilament (much of the fine fly tying thread is mono) is that it can be tightened a bit after installation by heat.  Some people use a soldering iron held close by. I find that too close to disaster.  Some use a hair dryer, but those things put out a lot of heat and wind, and you still have to be careful.  Craft stores sell a sort of mini hair dryer called a stamping iron, for making stamps for scrapbooking. I got one at Michaels using one of their ubiquitous 40% off coupons and it works very nicely to tighten monofilament thread.  Not too much heat, not too little- just right!

The fly tying thread that i used was not monofilament, and it might have been 8/0, smaller than 6/0.  In some applications it tends to go slack with, I think, change of humidity.   But on the short run of a funnel stay that should not be a problem.

Fred

PS:  The actual color of Cunard Red or White Star Buff can be debated forever.  On some vintage postcards I have, Cunard red looks quite red, not orange.  It is said it should be the color of a basketball, whatever that means!

Here is a link to my old post on my build:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/p/82798/928524.aspx#928524