Another First - 1/35 CH2 TES.

[Waspie]

Question for the armour buffs out there!
The tow cable, RyeFields supply a 'thread' which to me is too flexible. Do any of you guys have any tips for adding some stiffness to a wannabe cable???
OR
Do you substitute it for perhaps wire?
Cheers in advance
Doug

[The Smythe Meister]

Question for the armour buffs out there!
The tow cable, RyeFields supply a 'thread' which to me is too flexible. Do any of you guys have any tips for adding some stiffness to a wannabe cable???
OR
Do you substitute it for perhaps wire?
Cheers in advance
Doug

You can buy some Doug,(F.O.G.Models come to mind )
.... However,I prefer to use the braid from small gauge cable... it's loose when first stripped,but pop it in a drill chuck,forward drive,on slow speed,and it puts the twists in to suit your wants
I use that type of cable for work all the time,if you can wait a few days to receive it, I'll strip some out and send it to you. :smiling3:

[Waspie]

You can buy some Doug,(F.O.G.Models come to mind )
.... However,I prefer to use the braid from small gauge cable... it's loose when first stripped,but pop it in a drill chuck,forward drive,on slow speed,and it puts the twists in to suit your wants
I use that type of cable for work all the time,if you can wait a few days to receive it, I'll strip some out and send it to you. :smiling3:

That would be awesome matey. I'm in no rush anyway. Just looking ahead at what's coming up. Going to move on to the turret for a change of scenery for a while. That's if SWIMBO forgets the shed, (her she-shed), needs painting!!

[The Smythe Meister]

That would be awesome matey. I'm in no rush anyway. Just looking ahead at what's coming up. Going to move on to the turret for a change of scenery for a while. That's if SWIMBO forgets the shed, (her she-shed), needs painting!!

No problem,
I'll strip some out tomorrow mate,and P.M you for delivery address

[Scratchbuilder]

Just caught up with your build, and I can see you are taking it a bit at a time. As an old etch master, take a bow, you have done yourself proud.
Six of my latest builds are all etch bar armour builds, and they have all had their little quirks, but went together in the end.
Here I hope is a little inspiration for you. This was the Challenger that came after the initial bar armour and just befor the TES (Megadon) one.



Looking forward to more on your Chally,
Mike.

[Scratchbuilder]

Question for the armour buffs out there!
The tow cable, RyeFields supply a 'thread' which to me is too flexible. Do any of you guys have any tips for adding some stiffness to a wannabe cable???
OR
Do you substitute it for perhaps wire?
Cheers in advance
Doug

Eureka do cable in different sizes and is flexible..

[Waspie]

Just caught up with your build, and I can see you are taking it a bit at a time. As an old etch master, take a bow, you have done yourself proud.
Six of my latest builds are all etch bar armour builds, and they have all had their little quirks, but went together in the end.
Here I hope is a little inspiration for you. This was the Challenger that came after the initial bar armour and just befor the TES (Megadon) one.
[ATTACH]483769[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]483770[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]483771[/ATTACH]
Looking forward to more on your Chally,
Mike.

I do like that, (a lot). The weathering is most effective. Very reminiscent of my time at Bovi. The broken camo was starting to come very common during the end of my time there. I guess it's a purchasable add on? I did see a pic of the 'Megatron' with different soft camo scheme. I did see someone experiment with some fabric to reproduce a similar effect.
I'm not rushing anything as I'm in learning mode and I may have mentioned, SWIMBO has a bank of jobs lined up!!!

[Guest]

The tow cable, RyeFields supply a 'thread' which to me is too flexible. Do any of you guys have any tips for adding some stiffness to a wannabe cable???

You can probably glue it down into a shape that doesn’t look too flexible. The Challenger’s tow cables are stowed horizontally along the sides, which makes this easy enough, IMHO.

My main concern would be whether the thread has enough texture to look like a steel cable when painted. If not, I would probably replace it either by thin nylon cable (with a rope-like pattern) or by thin strands of copper wire from an electrical cable, twisted together using a hand drill.

Do you substitute it for perhaps wire?

Here’s a thread I wrote on this forum some years ago about how I make tow cables from copper wire:

https://www.scale-models.co.uk/threads/tow-cables.31200/

[The Smythe Meister]

You can probably glue it down into a shape that doesn’t look too flexible. The Challenger’s tow cables are stowed horizontally along the sides, which makes this easy enough, IMHO.

My main concern would be whether the thread has enough texture to look like a steel cable when painted. If not, I would probably replace it either by thin nylon cable (with a rope-like pattern) or by thin strands of copper wire from an electrical cable, twisted together using a hand drill.


Here’s a thread I wrote on this forum some years ago about how I make tow cables from copper wire:

https://www.scale-models.co.uk/threads/tow-cables.31200/

HA!! That's EXACTLY the method I was talking about....
... "Great minds" an all that!!

[langy71]

maybe one of our 'resin printer' friends on here could knock up a bit of a side line printing those stands you can put a bottle of Tamiya extra thin into to stop them getting knocked over...

[Tim Marlow]

maybe one of our 'resin printer' friends on here could knock up a bit of a side line printing those stands you can put a bottle of Tamiya extra thin into to stop them getting knocked over...

Blue tack under the bottle does that just as easily Chris. Sticks it to the bench.

[Jim R]

Glad the potential glue disaster was averted. It's happened to many of us with various levels of "B****y H**l"
A piece of plywood about 3 or 4 inches square with a balsa wood frame glued on to fit the glue bottle works for me.

[Waspie]

You can probably glue it down into a shape that doesn’t look too flexible. The Challenger’s tow cables are stowed horizontally along the sides, which makes this easy enough, IMHO.

My main concern would be whether the thread has enough texture to look like a steel cable when painted. If not, I would probably replace it either by thin nylon cable (with a rope-like pattern) or by thin strands of copper wire from an electrical cable, twisted together using a hand drill.


Here’s a thread I wrote on this forum some years ago about how I make tow cables from copper wire:

https://www.scale-models.co.uk/threads/tow-cables.31200/

Thanks for the link to your thread. That is defo something I could try myself. I have the technology!! I just need to start thinking out of the box a bit more!!

Regards the glue incident. I'll just be more aware of the wee beastie being a hindrance and do the lid up when she's about!!

[langy71]

I'll just be more aware of the wee beastie being a hindrance and do the lid up when she's about!!

I often get the same thing from one of three cas we have, you're just about to glue or paint a tiny delicate bit and it decides to plonk it's back end right in the middle of the area you're working on... then give you the 'yeah, and!!!' look

[Mini Me]

Question for the armour buffs out there!
The tow cable, RyeFields supply a 'thread' which to me is too flexible. Do any of you guys have any tips for adding some stiffness to a wannabe cable???
OR
Do you substitute it for perhaps wire?
Cheers in advance
Doug

Sorry for the late response Doug, here's what the twisted wire method should look like when done. Depending on the gage of the strands and the number of strands used, will determine the final diameter of the cable, I used 7 strands to achieve this in 1-87 scale so yours may take a considerable amount of strands to get what you're after...good luck.