In other news I spent some time this morning making up suitable struts (The undercarriage are just roughed out at this stage and the wing struts are overlong ready to be trimmed down) I decided after studying the close up photos in the datafile to make inverted 'V's for the centres and add the extra strut later which are laying alongside
Strutter struts , on Flickr
I have been following your Strutter build and must say that it is progressing nicely.
Of late I have also been fussing over making struts and similar bits in 1/72 scale. My usual go to for such things is to use thin wall brass tubing that I have "squashed" with a smaller diameter bit of rod inside.
I find it works well in larger scales but I just can't get it quite right in the smaller scales - either not "squashed" enough or too much.
Your use of sanded or filed brass wire, as you describe, is interesting. I have perused your description in this topic and in others that I have managed to find on this technique but I am left with a few questions.
Brass wire? Wire or rod, very similar but wire tends to be softer than rod. What is your preference of material.
What size wire or rod do you start with? Any tips on the sanding or filing bit? Do you work just by eye or do you use a jig or guide of some sort?
Soldering. Usual 60/40 lead/tin or lead free or silver bearing ( i.e. StayBrite ) or low temperature tin/bismuth or ?
As always, I find myself descending into a rabbit hole of over engineering something that should be simple.
cheers, Graham
Hi Graham nice to have you following along.
To answer your questions I found exactly the same as you when squashing tube so have used the slightly laborious method shown to me by Austin Stack a few years ago (Austin was an outstanding modeller who is sadly no longer with us, but it was looking at his 72nd models that really inspired me to have a go)
I use brass wire that I buy at shows made by Albion Alloys; usually comes in packets of 5 about 300 mm long. For the Strutter and most others I use 2mm for the main struts and either 1 or 1.5mm for the others depending on my mood.
Holding the piece flat on the workbench I use a needle file to put a flat on one side and then turn this side to the bench and sand a flat on the opposite side. I tend to make a bridge with my index finger and thumb and file between them while pressing down working on about 3" at a time and gradually work along the length. Once one side is done I flip it over and repeat on the other side.
I usually have to turn it over a few times gradually getting nearer to the thickness I'm after rather than try and do it it in just a couple of stages. No jigs for this I just use a mk1 eyeball which is okay given they'll need some work later. Once I'm happy with the rough thickness I use 320 or 400 wet/dry paper used dry to sand cutting marks out. This is the trickiest part and where you are liable to put a kink in it.
If this happens I've found that you can normally flip the wire over and pressing/sanding with a file will take most of the kink out.
I've just miked a piece and it is about 0.52mm when finished to this stage
This is the really boring part and Austin used to make up a batch of wires at the start of the year which would last him throughout the years modelling (Me, I prefer to just do a length when needed)
Hopefully you'll still have feeling in the tips of your fingers when you've done a couple of lengths. Austin used to use double sided tape on the bench once he'd put the initial flat sides on the wire, but I always ended up putting a proper bend in the stuff when removing it so just use finger pressure (or clamp it using my thumb under the bench with fingers above)
Anyway to make the struts I then clip off a slightly long piece of 'strut wire' and file one side to a sharp edge and add some rounding to the other side giving an rough aerofoil shape to the wire. Polish again with sandpaper and then shape the ends if needed. (If you look at the wing struts on this one the are tapered towards the ends, but some don't) With wider struts I'll then use a file to shape one end into a peg shape, but narrower ones usually just end up being pointed. The second end is shaped when I've checked and double checked the model usually on it's jig
Phew that took a while to describe, but hopefully that makes sense (I can take some pictures if it's not clear)
I use bog standard solder (60/40 stuff I presume, but the label has worn off) The cheap stuff that comes coiled in a plastic tube is fine.
I've got an ancient tin of Bakers Flux that I dip the neds of the brass wire in to tin them (coat with a thin layer of solder). Soldering two pieces together I just masking tape them onto a old oak base at the correct angle (If I'm being fussy I'll draw it out before hand) My soldering iron is laughable and about 40 years old I think it's about 15 -20 watts so nothing complicated. I do make sure there's plenty of solder on the joint and clean up with a file afterwards.
Hopefully that will keep you out of any rabbit holes when you could be building
Paul
