Rigging a 1.72 H-16 Flying Boat.

[Ken]

Hi everyone.

I did a few searches on the site and there seems to be a mix of comments on the correct thickness  for rigging material on a 1.72 kit.       For some silly reason I picked a beast to start with.    A Roden H-16 Curtis Flying boat.      I was thinking of using stiff wire as some builds mention it  as an alternative for a novice.   I know I'm a very long way from drilling holes and stringing filament line.  But this will get me started as I've developed a real love for these aircraft. 

     No one seems to have a firm opinion on the thickness of the material.      Even here on this site a reference by a  member came up  joking suggesting  using his dogs long hair.             Some people mention gauge, some refer to it in mils.  I've seen opinion run from 004 .to  016.   

For those have built a 1.72 and rigged the wings and tail assembly what are your thoughts?         Can you direct me to a thread where I might see the work on a 1.72 scale example up close?

Thanks for the help.     
 

[IanB]

Hi Ken,
 If you want rigging to scale, then you should use .002" (0.06mm). Personally, I have been using .005" (0.13mm) and it looks fine. Drilling and threading is really not difficult and will add a LOT of structural strength to the final model.
 I actually use both drilling/threading, and fine stainless wire, depending on the application. Here's a link to my SPAD XIII build which used both methods...

http://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=1661.15

If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a pm..

Ian

[WarrenD]

Ian,
      Thanks so much for posting the link to your SPAD build. When I was working on my MAC SPAD VII, and before I screwed up the upper wing, I was contemplating how to accomodate the double wires in such a small space. An old friend of mine on the World War One Modeling List (Crawford Neil I believe)did a beautiful job on his 1/72nd SPAD, and my goal was to equal his efforts. I'll be looking to your build thread in more detail later to learn from your efforts.

Ken,
       I know there are at least a couple of folks on the above mentioned list (Shane Weir comes to mind) that built the Roden Felix and used mono-filament, etc. to rig it. If you can't get an satisfactory answer here, perhaps you can slide on over there. In all cases of this build the modelers have stated that using the mono to rig and provide tension helped with the strengthening of the wings, etc.

HTH!

Warren

[Squiffy]

   I was thinking of using stiff wire as some builds mention it  as an alternative for a novice.   I know I'm a very long way from drilling holes and stringing filament line.  But this will get me started as I've developed a real love for these aircraft. 

If the point is to not have to drill holes then you will need to be able to measure precisely for each length of wire and cut it precisely.

With drilling holes for monofilament you don't need to be precise at all as you feed the line through, fix and trim the excess. So, I would say that for a novice it is much easier than using wire. Indeed I was a novice at rigging when I joined this forum and I've since lost count of how many aircraft I've rigged using the method shown by Ian.

I think if someone had suggested using lengths of stiff wire to rig the Vimy I'd have run away screaming!

[Modelnut]

Im a novice and it's much easier to drill holes and feed monofilament through. Use a good light and a magnifier and tweezers. For my 72 scale builds 2 pound mono looks good.