Rick and Bo, I did some experimenting this week, using decal strips over twin mono' and also mono' with a slat, as you suggested, Bo.
It's a very fiddly way to do it and I couldn't manage to wrap one 50mm length, mainly because the decal would tear. Using short lengths (~20mm) would probably work better than the 40mm I tried. I was using clear "Experts Choice" decal cut into 5mm strips.
Two other problems I found:
1. As the decal dried it pulled the mono'. Even under tension (heavy tweezers pulling the twin mono' strand at either end- about the normal tension I use when rigging) the spacing varied and the run looked like a sea scape, rather than being nice and flat. Using a decal setting solution just exacerbated the problem (and caused some of the film to break as it dried).
2. Using a strip of styrene took care of the above problems at first, but the edge of the styrene acts like a knife and the decal tore along most of the run. Trying to bevel the edge of the styrene just produced a sharper knife edge.
Also, when the decal had dried there was no really visible "wrap effect". However, using coloured decal or painting the finished wrap may change that. The decal film I used was very clear and thin, so hard to see as it was (which is exactly what we want in a decal's film
)
Now this was a very quick-and-dirty experiment. Using thicker decal film, shorter lengths and perhaps finding a way to glue the styrene strip
between the lengths of mono' may work better. And that would make the Salmson look very nice indeed.
Has anyone else tried a method they like?
Des, would it be better to start a separate thread on wrapping twin wire runs?
Cheers.
Dal.
