Eureka! How to do British double bracing wires

[Romani]

Maybe I am going to say water is wet, but I finally found it!

For a novice modeler like me, doing the double bracing wires in british fighters like the Camel and the SE5a is a torture. Putting a single wire, I can manage, but adding the second and keeping paralell with it was a nightmare of knotting the second one around the first and gluing the knot in place at the extreme, or trying to keep the wires apart inside the hole while the glue dried, and most of the time I couldn't get them paralell, or they were too close or too apart.

Never again!

Just drill holes at both ends large enough to accomodate both wires. Put the first wire and when it's set,cut notches or dents with the tip of a blade in the hole besides the first wire so the dent is a groove where the line falls inside allowing for perfect paralell alignment and separation from end to end!

Of course, cutting a notch may also help in setting the first wire.
+
For 1/72 scale, I reckon 1 milimeter separation is enough.

It's so simple I can't understand how I didn't figure out before! I am so happy !! La-la-la *sings*

Hope this helps somebody!

[Old Man]

It is a very difficult operation, and this sounds like an elegant way to proceed with it.

What sort of rigging material do you use? It sounds as if you are a monofilament man....

[Romani]

I do 1/72 scale and use fishing line, 0.15mm thick. I find it a good compromise size for all wires and cables. Even thinner lines could be used for aileron and rudder control cables, but that would be going into AMS.

I heard that monofilament aka invisible sewing thread is better because it's black or smoke colored, but fishing line is much easier to find.

Problem with fishing line is that in its natural state looks good, but if you spray varnish on the model they will look like frosted glass wich spoils the effect. I know have decided to paint the cables black or steel. At that scale cables would look black, but if the model is a dark color like British khaki, the rigging will not be visible, so painting it steel, or giving a wash of steel to make it glint when it catches the light makes it more visible and gives the right feel for the scale, I reckon.

Elastic thread might be easier to place, but I have my doubts about it. I believe it's more susceptible to break.

On the other hand, fishing line is more resistant to traction. The line I am using is rated for 1.80 kilos, (4 lbs) so it will not break if fingered or tossed around in transport, I use my models for gaming, so they need to be robust.

I don't know how others do rigging, but the way I do it is by doing pairs of cables opposite sides at the same time. Including cabane and rudder cables.

Whenever possible I use a continous cable from one side to the other, even if the middle cable section (ie, the excess cable that goes under the fuselage or across the wing) is cut after, this allows to pull exactly the same length on both cables, or if the struts alignment was not 100% correct, an uneven pulling of cables can ensure proper alignment.

The cables are pulled tight and the wing is compressed until the glue dries. This way, when I stop pulling the lines, the wing will return to its normal position, keeping the cables in tension. The trick is not pulling too hard to warp the wing, when set, the wires should have some slack so they bend under pressure, anything too taut will break more easily.

I try to use a continous loop drilling holes through the fuselage, nobody is going to see the cables running through the inside at any rate, in this way pulling from the side cable would result in pulling from the opposite cable, in this way loads are better distributed making the model more resistant, and avoiding misalignment or warping due to one wire pulling more than others.

By the way. I will add that trying to run a continuos line of wiring through all holes doesn't work as well even if it's faster. I know prefer to set every pair of cables one at a time. On the subject of double wires, you will have to drill the hole again after the first line is glued, because the hole will likely get clogged.

[Old Man]

I appreciate it greatly, and you have made me consider the use of monofilament more extensively in future. So far, I generally use it only for occassional applications, mostly in cabane rigging, where it is hard to manipulate short lengths of elastic. It is easier to cut straight lengths of monofilament, or even hair, to fit the length, and the lines are so short that even if there is a little sag, it will pass unoticed.

I use elastic line generally, and have not found the EZ-Line susceptible to breaking over time. It is quite durable, and since it stretches, if bumped, simply moves temporarily out of the way, at least if the anchoring joint at each end is solid. The only durability difficulty I have found is that, since the glue-joint on both ends is continually pulled, occassionally a joint at one end will pop some months after a model is completed. Often, I will use a simple "butt-joint", where the line is simply held to the surface by a tiny glue bead, and these are the most susceptible to this.

My approach is mostly "one line at a time", though I have used continuous lines for tail bracings, and on monoplanes, lately. As I am beginning to use a technique of larger holes through wing surfaces to serve as both rigging points and strut locators on my scratchbuilding efforts, I will probably be making more use of continuous line methods in future. I have a tendency to regard materials as scarce, and do not like the waste of clipping off the excess involved in passing waste line between holes, though I know this is fairly silly.

I acquired the "invisible thread" at my hobby shop, which has an extensive crafts component, including fabric crafts. I understand the stuff was originally intended for repair of lingerie, and that it can be acquired at fabric stores. I am not used to calculating in percentages of a millimeter, but the stuff I have is rated at four thousandths of an inch in diameter, and as I think a millimeter is a little less than fourty thousandths, suspect this would work out to about a ninth or tenth of a millimeter, a little smaller than the fishing line you use. The EZ-Line I use is rated at three thousandths of an inch, and shrinks a little in diameter under stretch. It is sold in a charcoal grey.

[se5a12]

Thanks your tutorial is very informative.Have you tried recreating a turnbuckle in 1/72 by looping the line several times to create a very large reef knot.I can create one on one side but have great difficulty getting the knot on the other side to line up with the wing surface whilst securing the wire.

[THE GREAT WALDO]

rub-n-buff makes the perfect colouring for fishing line rigging, just pull the line over the top of the tube with your finger as a guide, different silver/pewter tones are also possible.

Cheers
Andrew

[Lufbery]

This is a fantastic tip! Thanks.

[Ross_Moorhouse]

Someone was asking about doing British double rigging wires. This should answer that.

[Romani]

I am glad that this thread was of use of anybody. I am too busy to build airplanes for the time being, but I did put my technique to test.

Here's my SE5a, still a crude result due to horrible mishaps with paint and the use of varnish and asphalt as a weathering/shadowing agent. But I am happy with the way the rigging ended, and I was insane enough to dare making the rudder wires. Looks better than my earlier Camels.

The SE5a it's a 1/72dn scale Revell kit from 1963 that I got on eBay, 40 years old!! Some parts where missing, so I added white metal wheels and Lewis gun from Aeroclub. The wheels posed a problem, they were too heavy for the flimsy plastic legs of the carriage, so I had to use a needle as an axis, gluing the spreader bar on top of it. Btw, if the landing gear looks a little crooked it was because it broke when I was gluing it ... the story of this kit is a tale of blood, sweat, and tears, but I persevered and I am happy of having finished it despite the botched up paint finish and the overall jury rigged construction. The cabane struts never fitted right and I glued them as I could, and the interplane struts broke when I stepped on the kit by accident (!). I replaced three of them with plastic strips cut out from a vacuform kit sheet.

The propeller and the cowling are from a Roden airplane that I cannibalized for spares (now I have to buy another Roden kit for spares to be able to build the first one ). I lost the original cowling only to find it after gluing the Roden, so I left it that way, it doesn't fit as well but looks better.

Improvements are:
- Scrapping the molded exhaust tubes and replacing them with plastic rods
- Adding instrument panels and back seat to the cockpit (and a pilot, later)
- Adding windscreen: cut from acetate sheet, the supports /frame was cut out with a nail clipper from one spare cowling of the Roden Kit)
- Adding Aldis gun sight, from plastic rod and using a fine wire wound once around the rod to do the bipod
- And of course, the rigging. The advantage of fishing line for rigging is that it's robust enough to withstand vigorous rubbing with a cotton stick soaked in alcohol to clean it of paint after airbrushing the model, and I could even scrape the drips and drops of varnish off it with a sharp blade.

This model is a folly based on the false presumption that English aeroplanes would be easier to do because they are painted in a single color, and finished only out of stubborness and masochism. Actually getting the right tone of paint is a nightmare, and doing the rigging was devilishly difficult. So despite the construction flaws, I am proud of getting the brown-green color right, and of being able to do the rigging at all. A great learning experience.

Overall, I think the end result is satisfactory thinking is only the fourth kit I have built in my life, and the third rigging I attempt.

Also, I am specially pleased with the wooden effect on the propeller. I paint the propeller in a base coat of light brown, then I give it a coat of Citadel Brown Ink (a reddish brown) straight from the jar, without diluting, I don't spread it, just lay a drop on the surface and let it dry. The superficial tension of the liquid will force a smooth, reflecting surface when it dries, and because it's ink and in some places the covering is not as thick, the base color shows through, specially on the edges, causing the uneven coloring of natural wood. Spray varnish on it to make it glossy and adding depth.

I have to take better pictures as these ones taken with fluorescent light , high resolution and zoom don't do it justice.

The airplane pictured is of a Canadian Ace, McCall from 41 Squadron RFC, credited with 35 victories, nothing was said in the box, so I found out by looking the airplane serial number in the Aerodrome database, ain't this place great?

[StephenLawson]

Ok Romani! Now where are the other 18 -24 aircraft from the Sqdn? Nicely done!