The Ship Model Forum

by **stoneheart** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 2:09 am

I am trying a mix of extremely thin silver wire and polyester thread. The wire I get from headphone leads, but trust me this is not for the faint of heart as its really very hard to extract from its outer shield in any grate length. Once I have the lengths I need, I have been using the tip of a fresh scalpel to make either a grove or a very fine hole and super glue the wire in. Seems to give a great effect as when it is mixed with other grades of thread it gives the feel of size and density to the rigging. I never thought of a keyboard lead. Pity my hair is not long enough or I could use that to lol. Hmmm the more I think about it I may just try the nylon mono filament instead or the keyboard wire if its not as hard to extract. Although it could be I am just using the wrong headphone leads?

by **Jason M.** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 12:49 pm

PHIL ENGLISH wrote:I'm working up the nerve to use real spider web. black widow web specifically. It was used in WW2 for gun sights. It's tiny diameter, self sticking, stretchy with little tension. weight to strength ratio greater than steel. Longevity is good. Painting should kill the stickness after attachment.

I want to use it at 1/350.

I have an abundance of the product outside the house, if I can only let the manufacturer to allow me to take samples. Better yet, train one to crawl between the masts ...and kindly exit the premise afterward. I hate the things but will eventually give it a try. I've noted long single strands of 3' or more.

Has anyone tried this?

Phil

I think that using black widow spider web is the DEFINITION of thinking "outside the box" I think its a brilliant idea, and even possible eliminate the need for CA glue. WHo knows!?

by **PetrOs** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 11:24 am

Well, for rigging I use the wire from (usually dead) electronics. Either splitting the cables or opening old transformator from a power unit. In both cases I get a few meters of very fine thin wire. For example, from the transformator of a dead DSL modem i extracted about 30 meters of wire, in two different thicknesses (primary and secondary contours).

by **Andy G** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 4:35 am

PHIL ENGLISH wrote:...Once I get it strung, get paint on it quick.

Phil

How many, like me, read that as "once I get stung..."?

Andy

by **Dustin G.** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 11:30 am

Wow..... this has given me a lot of ideas on what to use for rigging.... I used to have a guinea-pig. Sweetest rodent I ever owned. I never see spiders in my house.... I see cockroaches all the time. I'll most likely try to use the stretched sprue first. If that doesn't work, well I have plenty of fishing gear.

by **PHIL ENGLISH** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 10:25 pm

Les.

I been nuking them for 25 years here. I hate'em too. Used to have night mares about them in the house, dangling above me as I slept. Thankfully I seem to be over that. In this country they proliferate. I've seen them at the sea shore, in Death Valley, at 8000 ft in the Sierra. They migrate cross country on the ground & I also think that the tiny ones float by air on long spinets of web.

Like you, I have drawn the line, if I see one inside it's time to gas the house.

I will not give up the idea of using thier web for fine rigging. Handling it will be tricky as it's very sticky. Probably cut sections off using a "fork" to keep the desired piece straight & then a probe to wrap or attach each end by slightly stretching. It is amazingly strong, having seen lizzards fatally entangled. Once I get it strung, get paint on it quick.

Phil

by **GERARD** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 10:20 pm

I found a wig like the type they sell for halloween works great and yeilds years worth of riggin for around 5 dollars and you can get several colors for much less then the emergency room fees from a black widow bite lmao i think i need to clean my monitor now i just spit my coke all over it thanks for the laugh Gerry

by **les** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 9:17 pm

If I had those suckers outside my house, I'd nuke the whole yard with bug spray! I hate spiders!

by **MichelB** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:24 am

I just bought me an old PC keyboard for 1 euro and cut off the cable. When split, it yields several meters of very fine metal wire. Enough for dozens of models to come. The material is very forgiving, glues easily and since I only rig superficially to 'sketch out' the rigging, this will do fine for me.

by **Commodore Rob** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 8:53 am

Well i use invisable mending thread its great for 1/3000th scale as it is, and painted it works in larger scales:)

by **Sean Hert** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 11:48 pm

Not all spider web strands are sticky- there's like 7 different types of web they make....

by **tony t** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 11:43 pm

I don't think I could try that, due to my overwhelming urge to destroy any insects, arachnids or myriapods i come across ...

Just occured to me though, maybe dental floss fibers could be split down to sufficient fineness for something like cross hairs ...

by **Timmy C** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 11:31 pm

!! Black Widows...*shudders*

I think the stickiness will cause more problems than it'd solve. It might (and most likely will) stick to something you don't want it to, and possibly tangling up the rigging entirely. =(

by **PHIL ENGLISH** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 10:57 pm

I'm working up the nerve to use real spider web. black widow web specifically. It was used in WW2 for gun sights. It's tiny diameter, self sticking, stretchy with little tension. weight to strength ratio greater than steel. Longevity is good. Painting should kill the stickness after attachment.

I want to use it at 1/350.

I have an abundance of the product outside the house, if I can only let the manufacturer to allow me to take samples. Better yet, train one to crawl between the masts ...and kindly exit the premise afterward. I hate the things but will eventually give it a try. I've noted long single strands of 3' or more.

Has anyone tried this?

Phil

by **RNfanDan** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 10:55 am

Rob wrote: "...guinea-pigs are very bad-tempered and have very large teeth.

Cheers,

Rob Kernaghan

True on the large teeth, but I have raised cavies for nearly 20 years of various species, and have yet to encounter any with a bad temper. It's a shameful and heartbreaking thing that so many of these gentle, intelligent creatures are doomed to painful lives and ghastly deaths in the world's laboratories, many just for the sake of testing products intended to make some air-headed human female "look better".

by **Rob** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 10:17 am

I used to have long hair. Occasionally whilst rigging a loose hair would get in amongst the sprue and be duly attached in error. I learnt a lesson here, you cannot heat-tighten hair like you can sprue. Annoyingly, it was always the dark hair, not the ever-increasing number of grey ones that would invade the work space.

These days I have short hair (makes the grey less obvious).

A useful source of 1/700 whip aerials is Guinea-Pig hair as it is quite stiff. Modelling tip is that it is best to wait for your guinea-pig to moult first. Do not attempt to remove the hair as (a) it is cruel and (b) guinea-pigs are very bad-tempered and have very large teeth.

Cheers,

Rob Kernaghan

by **les** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 9:41 am

You can also use monofiliment fish line or polyester thread.

by **Jason M.** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:34 pm

geedog wrote:has anyone tried hair? My wife and daughters leave enough in the bath to rig a fleet. I have used it on 1/700 Mogami and had great results.

I just finished 1/700 Indianapolis, and during the rigging process, I was thinking the excact same thing! How did it work for u? I didn't have the guts to go through with it, cuz the whole idea, while insightful, kind of creeped me out. LOL

by **DeadByCheese** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:06 am

Sprueing..DBC style

1.) Take a straight piece of sprue from the sprue thingy

2.) Light a candle(make sure its in a candle holder so you dont have to touch it)

3.) Hold the end of the sprue above the candle flame, do not let it catch fire. The plastic will bend back and smoke a little, keep heating it above the candle until it curls up and the melted plastic is mushed together.

4.) Use some tweezers to stretch the glob of plastic =.=

by **Francisco P. de Nanclares** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 2:15 pm

les wrote:Make some off hand comment to your wife or daughter about women. Sorry I couldn't resist.

Good one Les!.

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