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How on earth did you manage to run the wire through a flame while it was on the model? And why?
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Well, since this is the very first model I intend to build and paint on a reasonably decent way, I decided to proceed on a methodical way deciding wich parts had to be painted and assembled before assembling them together. I even painted the tiny bits before cutting them off the sprue *gasp!*
So I decided to paint and assemble the undercarriage before sticking it to the model. First, after asking in the forum and hearing what I most definetely didn't want to hear I will have to strip the paint of the axle wing, and then paint again, also remove the wheels overpaint them and apply lozenge decals, now the problem is that I glued the wheels with superglue, so it looks like I will have to shear them off and glue again. *sigh*
Answering your question. Using an electric mini drill I drilled the holes into the axle wing to get the wire through them. Unexpected problem I found out is that with the heat of the friction the shoddy plastic melts and fouls the drill bit , so you have to drill the holes with brief "bursts" to allow for the plastic to cool off.
Other problem I found was, you guessed, that since I had already glued the struts (with supergrlue again) drilling the holes was more difficult.
I ran the wire through the hole, bent it to make a hook and poured superglue inside the holes, sticking the hook to the bottom of the axle wing and filling the drill hole as a bonus. That way the wire is solidly anchored and it can be pulled taut and straightened out before cutting it to the desired length and sticking the tip with a drop of superglue to the fuselage. When I try this method with wing bracing I suppose I will drill holes on both wings.
The wires were about 2 inches long, so I figured I could hold them to the flame with no problems, it's only that the candle flame flickered and the plastic is so crappy that one of the ends of the strut was warped by the heat. before I realized it, as my attention was focused on keeping away the edge of the axle wing from the flame.
I do have to say that heating the wire is a very good idea. The copper stretches, remains taut and losses the tendency to bend. Keeping it taut with a pair of tweezers and sticking the tip to the fuselage should be fairly easy.
On the subject of the strut.. couldn't find any epoxi putty around to mold the missing bit, don't want to buy another kit , and don't have the heart to rip out the undercarriage of my previous experimental model since I finally managed to make it passably looking.
So I rummaged through the boxes of models hoping to find some plastic piece I could cut to shape to replace the strut. I found a spare link of a track of a WWII Russian tank at 1/35 scale, wich is of the appropiate thickness, rather than shearing off the strut at the base, I decided to just cut below the warped part and stick the bit of the track piece on top of it using superglue. When I attach it to the fuselage I will trim it to the desired length, and hide the "repair" with a generous application of Tamiya putty and paint.
Thanks to this happy discovery I've decided to persevere, and post about my woes. I'm still pondering about wether to drill holes into the fuselag side for the aileron cables or not, since I have to repaint the fuselage yet again
By the way, interesting accidental discovery. A spill of superglue smooths and evens out a rough surface way better than the application of Tamiya putty.