by Skyediamonds » Thu Jun 18, 2015 12:03 am
Gunny, great to hear from you as always. For the Wright Flyer, I used the kit-supplied thread for the rigging. It's very strong & easy to use.I also used some store-bought white thread to use as tying twine for the upper & lower ends of the wing struts. Just that part of the detailing alone is not seen on any other scale model, at least that I'm aware of. It's just another touch of finesse to the overall super detailing in addition to using real chains. This is where I'd sure like to meet this friend from Japan. Sounds like we share common OCD...LoL As far as your Stampe & my PT-17 goes for rigging of the wings I used thin strips of silver-spray painted glossy magazine covers. I don't know what scale the Stampe is, but Guillow's Stearman biplane is 1/20th. That makes flat flying cables ( as opposed to calling them wires) pretty thin & narrow -like say no more than a 1/16th wide, if at that. As good luck would have it, Guillow's designed the Stearman such that the flying rigging need not be functional. That gave me a chance to explore more options that were "outside the box." Prior to using thin magazine strips, I found out that flat flying cables only were available to the large scale models such as 1/4th, 1/5th, & 1/6th. The largest plastic models were 1/32 & 1/24, & none were of biplanes. Which put my Stearman in a nether world between scales. Tried cutting thin strips from those disposable aluminum baking pans that can be purchased at the local grocery store. The thin strips tend to curl up & matter what extreme measures I took, they either remained curled or kinked. Also, the edges were razor sharp which made for handling them hazardous. Tried cutting with hobby knives which only dulled the blades, scissors & even the guillotine paper cutting board to no good results. I even tried those thin braiding strips we all used to braid for key chains, but they were too thick & too wide, & the list goes on. Until I decided to use glossy front magazine covers. In addition to ease of cutting, they have that ultra smooth surface which heightened the metallic effect when sprayed with metallic silver (or metal), I personally called Mr. Gerry Yarish -technical editor of Model Airplane News & with the exception of the very expensive Proctor Enterprise & very small (but expensive GasPatch for plastic models), no turnbuckles were easy to find. Used tubular brass-colored beads that featured a flat tab with a hole in one end. Sooo, that's what I used on the Stearman. If interested, let me know & we can go into greater detail. -Sky