by David Griffith » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:43 am
Dear Martin,
I think half the secret is finding a way of temporarily holding the thread in position while the glue is setting. Trying to hold the thread with your fingers and whistling while you wait isn't going to do it. I use "Blu-Tack". It may be that this is marketed under a different name in the US; if so, it is the grey putty-like adhesive that you use for hanging posters on walls.
The rigging is one of the last processes I carry out and it happens after the model is permanently fixed to its base. If, for example, I am attaching an aerial between the yards on the fore and main masts, I will put a small lump of Blu-Tack on the base in front of the bows and use this to secure the end of a thread. I then lead the thread over the foreyard, then over the mainyard and down to a similar lump of Blu-Tack on the base behind the stern, such that the run of thread that you want to end up with is under a very slight tension, just enough to pull kinks out of the thread, but not enough to distort the masts. You can now apply glue to the yards, and after a few minutes cut off the excess thread at both ends of the ship with fine scissors close up against the yards.
As I mentioned in a post earlier in this thread, the glue that I have had most success with is stationer's gum (mucilage in the US), taking a drop, diluting it with a touch of water so that it goes on easily with a brush and just painting it over the attachment point. It doesn't sound as though it will work, but I find it is quite strong enough. This stuff is hard to find in the stationer's shops nowadays, as everyone has gone over to using glue sticks, but I have managed to get it in this country on special order, though I did have to buy an industrial sized litre bottle of the stuff. For a line that is critical, I might tend to use thin superglue, for example the joints between the cage aerials and yards on my HMS Cumberland (see gallery), where a fair degree of tension built up. In this case the use of Blu-Tack to anchor the threads is even more useful as superglue just won't hold if there is any kind of movement in the joint as the glue is being applied.
You may want to give thought to the order in which you do the various parts of the rigging. I would tend to put the signal halliards on fairly early in the process as they can be the fiddliest part and other bits of rigging will get in my way. A topmast backstay may be one of the later things to put on as it would run "outside" most of the other lines.
Other pieces of advice that I have for you are to ensure that you have lots of light, preferably from multiple directions to prevent too many shadows, have a sheet of white paper to work on and also use as a background as the threads will be more visible. Also have a loop of fine wire. You can put the working end of the thread through this and use it as a sort of needle. It makes it much easier if you are trying to get a thread to pass between railings and suchlike.
I hope this is all of use to you.
Kind regards,
David Griffith
Dear Martin,
I think half the secret is finding a way of temporarily holding the thread in position while the glue is setting. Trying to hold the thread with your fingers and whistling while you wait isn't going to do it. I use "Blu-Tack". It may be that this is marketed under a different name in the US; if so, it is the grey putty-like adhesive that you use for hanging posters on walls.
The rigging is one of the last processes I carry out and it happens after the model is permanently fixed to its base. If, for example, I am attaching an aerial between the yards on the fore and main masts, I will put a small lump of Blu-Tack on the base in front of the bows and use this to secure the end of a thread. I then lead the thread over the foreyard, then over the mainyard and down to a similar lump of Blu-Tack on the base behind the stern, such that the run of thread that you want to end up with is under a very slight tension, just enough to pull kinks out of the thread, but not enough to distort the masts. You can now apply glue to the yards, and after a few minutes cut off the excess thread at both ends of the ship with fine scissors close up against the yards.
As I mentioned in a post earlier in this thread, the glue that I have had most success with is stationer's gum (mucilage in the US), taking a drop, diluting it with a touch of water so that it goes on easily with a brush and just painting it over the attachment point. It doesn't sound as though it will work, but I find it is quite strong enough. This stuff is hard to find in the stationer's shops nowadays, as everyone has gone over to using glue sticks, but I have managed to get it in this country on special order, though I did have to buy an industrial sized litre bottle of the stuff. For a line that is critical, I might tend to use thin superglue, for example the joints between the cage aerials and yards on my HMS Cumberland (see gallery), where a fair degree of tension built up. In this case the use of Blu-Tack to anchor the threads is even more useful as superglue just won't hold if there is any kind of movement in the joint as the glue is being applied.
You may want to give thought to the order in which you do the various parts of the rigging. I would tend to put the signal halliards on fairly early in the process as they can be the fiddliest part and other bits of rigging will get in my way. A topmast backstay may be one of the later things to put on as it would run "outside" most of the other lines.
Other pieces of advice that I have for you are to ensure that you have lots of light, preferably from multiple directions to prevent too many shadows, have a sheet of white paper to work on and also use as a background as the threads will be more visible. Also have a loop of fine wire. You can put the working end of the thread through this and use it as a sort of needle. It makes it much easier if you are trying to get a thread to pass between railings and suchlike.
I hope this is all of use to you.
Kind regards,
David Griffith