How to do bracing wires in 1/72n scale?

[shaneweier]

At that scale, doing the wires of the rigging, landing gear and control cables seems superfluous as they wouldn't be visible

Mmmm.

Let us say that the real life wire diameter is 3mm, or 1/8"

That's 125 thou, so in 1/72 it'll be a little under 2 thou in diameter.

And rigging wires are frequently *thicker* than that - much thicker in some cases.

The finest Dai Riki fly tying monofilament is around 3 thou - and eminently visible - while actually being in scale in 1/72

FWIW

It does mean that if you add rigging it need not be overscale. And that if you leave it out you are excluding something that you probably *should* see

Shane

[Brad]

I don't know if it is "in scale" or not, but I found that the local Hobby Lobby (don't go there for model stuff, they don't have anything worthwhile...) has 32 gauge "beading" wire. (I went there specifically to find that, since nobody else seemed to have it.)

I'm gonna give that a shot and see how it looks. I'm not sure which "version" of 32 gauge it is- so it looks like it will be 8 to 10 thousandths. Maybe not really in scale, but I want to look at it.

I'm waiting for them to get some silver in- they had some gold, green, and reddish colored wire, but I wanted the plain silver and it was out of stock. I suppose I could blacken it with a candle flame or somethng, but I want to use silver wire to begin with.

Also, I haven't looked at any WWI aircraft that closely... but on the "modern" biplanes I've looked at they are usually a bit larger than 1/8" (and usually not round.)

Can anyone offer more input into "scale" size?

Brad

[PeterL]

Brad, the "colo(u)red" wire may be anodized, but is more likely laquered I should have thought. Condenser wire and electric motor windings are also often coated in this way and running through a flame burns off the coating reducing the thickness of the wire.

[Brad]

Hmmm... I didn't think of that. Too late though, I already got the silver stuff.

Brad

[shaneweier]

Also, I haven't looked at any WWI aircraft that closely... but on the "modern" biplanes I've looked at they are usually a bit larger than 1/8" (and usually not round.)

Brad

Yes, when I used 1/8 as an example I deliberately chose a cross section at the thin end because the point was to show that even that *is* large enough to be visible in 1/72 scale. Of course larger diameters were used.

OTOH aerofoil section rigging wasn't as common as modern biplanes would lead you to expect. "RAF Wires" were most common on British aircraft later in the war, elsewhere round wires were more normal.

Shane