wnw sopwith pup RNAS

[Epeeman]

Coming along nicely, Michael.

I meant to ask earlier, how did you get on with the lower wing installation?  I understand from some threads I've read that this seems to be an area of tricky fit?

Regards

Dave

[dirk]

Hi Michael,

beautiful work, especially on the weathering on the fuselage. So sorry that I missed your work until now,

Dirk

[Pete Nottingham]

Hi Michael;

Looking good now, as regards the rigging, if a you are using monofilament fishing line, to get a wire tight, use a pin heated in a candle flame and hold it about 1 to 2 mm from the line, the line should spring tight, but be careful or you will melt through the line, before you try on the model, try gluing a piece of line between some sprue with just a little slack in it and try the hot pin on that.

Cheers

Pete.

[Chris Johnson]

You're doing great work with the rigging Michael.

To pull lines taut, I use forceps which I clip onto the excess piece of line. I can easily apply tension by gently pulling the forceps or allowing it to hang down so the weight of the tool applies the tension.

I clip my excess line with a cuticle clipper. As it's like pliers, it works very well.

Cheers,

Chris

[michael]

Thanks for the kind words and tips everyone i will take them onboard 

Dave - yea i had problems with the fitting of the wing/cockpit area, just some sanding down though nothing real major.

Pete that to me sounds a scary procedure - my face would be a picture if i melted the rigging  you would think the ilne would expand when hot, but i never was any good at science. cheers Pete 

cheers

michael

[GAJouette]

  Michael,
Any of the above mentioned techniques should work well my friend. That being said you could default to drilling through the lower wing and pulling the thread through. You can hold the line by hand or weight until secured with super glue. The downside is the repairs require after.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[coyotemagic]

I think your rigging looks great, Michael!  Tight enough, to my eye.  Pete's suggestion about using heat is the way I'd go about tightening up any sagging lines, if you really feel it's necessary.  I use wooden matches, though.  Probably a bit more risky in tight spaces.  I light a match then blow it out.  While it is still smoking, I hold the match under the line and and let the smoke drift up to the line.  Not too close.  I use the smoke to indicate where the heat is going.  You have to use a new match for each line you are doing.  Whichever method you use, like Pete said, experiment first.
Cheers,
Bud

[Pete Nottingham]

Bud, if you prefer the wooden match method, you could always re-light the match from a candle.

Cheers

Pete.

[Des]

I find one of the easiest ways to tension the lines is to use a small soldering iron. Let the soldering iron get nice and hot then hold it under the line you want to tension, move the iron up and down the line a few times being very careful not to touch the line, a few seconds is all that is needed. Dont hold the soldering iron in one spot either, it will melt the line very quickly. A little bit of practice and you will find that adding tension to a slack line is very simple.

Des.

[Jan K]

Nice work. I hope the ailerons are not fixed yet, they are supposed to work opposite way - one side up, the other side down.
(Excuse my clumsy English, please.)

Jan

[michael]

Cheers Jan

woops i did not know that about the ailerons 

but no worries i fixed them on with fuse wire, so they can be put right 

and your English is perfect no need for excuses

many thanks

michael

[pepperman42]

The rigging looks very consistant and taut. I light a toothpick to tighten lines but Des' idea sounds the best - most control and consistant heat.

Steve

[Jan K]

I find one of the easiest ways to tension the lines is to use a small soldering iron. Let the soldering iron get nice and hot then hold it under the line you want to tension, move the iron up and down the line a few times being very careful not to touch the line, a few seconds is all that is needed. Dont hold the soldering iron in one spot either, it will melt the line very quickly. A little bit of practice and you will find that adding tension to a slack line is very simple.

Des.

I use a regular soldering gun, it seems to be an easy way to me. Just be careful to approach the line from the right side -  as the line tightens quite fast it is quite easy to underestimate the distance and to destroy the line by touching it with the gun tip.
(shrinking shown by the blue arrow)

[Pete Nottingham]

I have to agree with Jan, using the hot pin method I always heat the underside of the line, however reading the method Des uses, I think I might give that a try.

Cheers

Pete.

[Chris Johnson]

I use a miniature soldering iron too, but be careful as it's easy to carelessly touch the barrel on a wing with dire results.



That 'oops' took some fixin'!

Cheers,

Chris