Quoted Text
After a second and third look, I think you may be right Nick.
The problem is using Evergreen for the rod. The smallest they produce is .5mm. However that in it’s self is a problem. I have 100 (give or take) sets for the rod and all, and I mean every single piece varies from .68mm to .34mm. So there is no consistency.
Fishing line looks great but wont hold onto the resin. Copper wire, it works but once you add the wire to the slats and then cut the part from the sprue, the whole thing curls up to the extent that the tube supports from the hull to the BA wont line up and the panel has a banana shape to it that wont pull out (as does the fishiong line). The other option is to use brass rod. This works very well but the cost factor then comes into play. Over 30+ lengths are need to complete the kit. Not including the turret!!!!
Any ideas team???????? Short of casting the bar in place.
Cheers Jason
Jason, I would hate to be right..I'm looking forward to this Slat set as well..
Forget about fishing line, nor would I go for brass rod--as each cut off edge would be hard to file square-off. And I would think that if I'd have to use brass rods, then I would prefer to stick with metal/photoetch slats..so I can solder the whole damn thing.
So...Actually the smallest styrene rod is 0.3mm and 0.4mm made by Plastruct. 10 pieces per pack, each approx 25.7 cm long. They are your best option.
I believe you can get wholesale price from the manufacturer, since you'd be buying in bulk.
http://www.plastruct.com I use these rods myself and they're indeed the regular plastic stuff..so gluing them to resin or metal via superglue or gatorglue will be no issue.
Using plastic rods will also help make this kit more friendly, since we can slightly "melt" the plastic with Tamiya Extra Thin Cement (green cap) while already positioned at the resin or metal slats's location..the softened plastic will hold to the slat just enough for us to later drop some superglue to fix them in place. Saves a lot of fumbling around right...?
I think that if those resin Slats you cast is close to the thickness of the real things (but not real accurate)..then using the thinner 0.3 or 0.4mm plastic rods would give a more realistic overall representation and thus help you get away with the resin slat inaccuracy.....???
Another thought would be getting the "flat" strips cut by those companies who cut sheet styrene. I don't know the cutting tolerances.. But I think it is possible since I had experimented with this idea for some personal projects locally.. I think it's a matter of whether the companies are willing or not to work with you with this.
There are alot but I can only remember these guys at the moment
http://www.masterpiecemodels.com/ Hope I'm clear..?
Goodluck!
