I've got an M-88 in the works, and the nylon cord from the kit that you use for the rigging cables is a little kinked. I'm trying to get it straightened out a bit and the kit's block & tackles aren't heavy enough to pull it taut. It's already on the model by the way. Any ideas on how I can make it look like it has some tension on it? I was thinking about a thin coat of CA glue and pulling it tight until dry...the CA will make it stiff. Any better suggestions?

Greg
Somewhere, perhaps on this forum, I saw someone suggest two methods of overcomming this. One was to show the crain liftine a load, thereby keeping the string tight. The other was to show the cable hooked to the crain and drawn tight.
I also have heard of pulling string through wax to keep it stiff. The superglue may also work.
HTH

white glue? Or get rid of the current cables and create new ones with twisted thin wire. I've made tow cables for vehicles with 3 or 4 strands of very fine wire twisted together using a drill or pin vise. The multiple strands are stiff, so sagging or fibrulation (thats the little threads that make up chord that come loose and give string or chord that fuzzy look) aren't a problem. For extremely fine line I use a single wire beause the braided look is imaterial then.

Chevalier

Greg, I had this problem too and I corrected it this way: I attached everything and got it all in place, then I hung a load from the winch, in this case a bottle of model master paint, which straightened the lines. Then I took some CA glue and brushed it lightly on the cables, including the support cables, making sure not to get any on the plasic parts so that I could still move it to paint it. After it dried the lines stayed dead straight and I had a much easier time painting and detailing the cable. This method also took care of fuzzies and stary threads.

Rob

My M88A1 is almost done. The boom support cables are not a problem because I made sure that they are short enough to carry the weight of the boom thus keeping them taught. The winch cable is a different story though because, as Grifter pointed out, the block and tackles aren't heavy enough. I might hang a few lengths of spare track on it.

thanks guys.
Rob, I think i'm gonna try hanging something like you did. I don't want to model a load on the winch because I want the future owner to be able to lower the main boom to transport the model.

Could you use a figure holding the winch hook like he was getting ready to hook it to something? Then it wouldn't matter if the lines had some slack in them. If you wanted to hook a vehicle to it later, just remove the figure.

help?
or dog help?

Glad I could be of assistance, Greg.


Rob