Antenna

Many people replace masts on modern ships with brass rod when the kit ones don't work.  Brass works and solders very nicely.

And also, any tips for the mast of the USS Independence (LCS-2)? I have the Bronco kit, and the provided mast just wasn't working out..

I'd like to point out that not all of us would rather play video games...

Fine steel tubing works, too.  I have some very fine tubing from McMaster-Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/#), including a diameter smaller than hypodermic needle stock.

Don,

I use both seizing thread and fly tying dope extensively.  And my loom and thread bob are heavily used. And I have yet to tie a single fly.  

Ghostrider,

For antenna's, nothing beats a good set of tweezers, trimmers, and small pliers.  I have a pair of tweezers in my set with cutting blades that are a godsend when positioning and trimming micro thin parts like antennas and very fine photo etch.

As an acoustic guitarist one type of wire I usually have in abundance is used guitar strings.  They are steel and won't bend like brass, but having been tuned to pitch, once they wear out and are removed from the instrument, they are straight.  The strings will require painting since as mentioned, they are steel.

The treble strings are great for antenna.  I've used the finer gauge strings to represent guy wires, etc.

The bronze wound strings can be used as well to represent an engine hose, etc.

Check any guitar shops or teachers in your area.  They will have a supply of used strings or can be asked to hang on to them for you, since used strings are just thrown away.

Different hobbyists might be dwindling, but guitar players are still in abundance.

The best straight brass wire I've found is the Detail Associates stuff. The railroad-focused hobby shop 35 miles from here always seems to have it in stock.

Walther's (www.walthers.com) carries Detail Associates stuff. And the Walther,s website is pretty nice. You can shop by manufacturer, and you can see whether the item is in stock or not.

I just checked. Detail Associates wire ranges in diameter from .006" to 1/16". Walters shows most -not all - of them as in stock. Wouldn't be a bad idea to stock up.

I find Micro Mark a good place for tools, not the best for supplies- actual material I use in my models, though I do buy my decal paper from them (paper for homemade inkjet decals).

For supplies I find I have to go to any of several online vendors.  Model Expo is pretty good for ship modelers- thin, narrow woods and scribed deck planking, fine threads- finer than I can get from local craft and sewing stores, deck fittings, rigging fittings.  I can usually find styrene I need at LHS, but have ordered directly from Evergreen.  Squadron has good amount of photo etch, but for US suppliers it is as easy to order from them directly.

The place to go for hobby supplies is Micro Mark. They are mail order on the internet.

But you guys raise a troubling question. It seems that all of the "hands on" hobbies are on the decline. The kids and young people of today would rather play virtual games on the computer. This is being noticed in the model train hobby. Antique automobiles are getting so electronically complicated that the shade tree mechanics are being forced out of the hobby. Not sure where this is going but it ain't good.

that would make the world a very sorry place don

I have a hard time finding brass wire thin enough (small enough gauge).  Even copper wire in small sizes is becoming harder to find, as home electronics hobby is fading.  Even fine thread is hard to find- craft stores tell me sewing hobby is in decline so they carry a smaller stock of thread.  Are all hobbyists converting over to model building?

I think a discussion on where to find really small sizes of anything useful for rigging or antennas would be worth while.  Lately I have been ordering stuff from a fly-tying supply place. I hope fishing doesn't go into a decline!

I'm one of those who cannot stretch sprue consistently, plus I'm wary of the fumes associated with that.

I also endorse brass wire. It comes nice and straight. It doesn't rust like steel wire and it's easy to cut and bend. There's also all kinds of tubing available, including many sizes that nest well and are useful for things like masts and stacks.

Another way to make short rods is to buy a decent quality nylon house painting brush. I've got one that has bristles about 3" long. They are a mixture of black and clear. They are mostly not too round and they have tapered tips, but the brush probably has about 10,000 of them.

If I snip off a couple dozen at a time, I can sort through them and get some good round pieces an inch or longer.

They aren't strong, but make great whip antennas and short pieces of rigging like stack stays.

i cut brass wire wiith snips, and I cut tubing with a tubing cutter. Depending on the tension you put on the cutter, the cut can sometimes have a slightly rounded or "squished" end. That can be dressed with a file, or sometimes used to advantage. A trick when cutting tubing that you intend to nest, is to nest it first and the cut the larger diameter over the smaller one. Otherwise they may not slide together because of the slightly squished end on the bigger piece.

If you're talking about a rod antenna (as opposed to a wire antenna), my suggestion is to forget the plastic part and replace it with either stretched sprue or wire.

I can see this problem shaping up in my Trumpeter 1/700 Dreadnought. The torpedo net booms are numerous, skinny, and, if made out of styrene, fragile. They're nothing but straight, styrene rods. My intention is to use the ones in the kit as patterns to cut pieces of brass wire to the right lengths. I suspect that will actually take considerably less time than it would take to slice all those kit parts off the sprue and clean them up.

Brass wire is great stuff for the twentieth-century warship modeler. If you have a hobby shop that caters to model railroaders in your vicinity, see what it has in the way of straight brass wire. (The railroad set uses it for piping.) A company called Detail Associates sells it in a variety of sizes, packaged in plastic bags and ready to use. The medium diameters are good for replacing kit masts, yards, and booms.

The kit industry has now reached the point where it actually can reproduce such parts in styrene to scale - or nearly so. The days of grossly overscale masts are just about over. But that doesn't mean styrene is the best material for such pieces.

The other problem with sprue is breaking it after it is glued.  I have seen so many of my fellow ship contestants making repairs to sprue rigging and antennas on models where they damaged the stuff during transport and unpacking that I decided to stick with my threads.

Try a razor saw....doesn't put much stress on the part.