Hey there guys,
I have a question reguarding 1/35 scale antennaes for modern tanks and afv's. I normally cut a thin piece of steel or brass wire to a 4.5 inch length, wrap finer copper wire for 3/8 inch at the bottom then top it off with a bead of super glue at the top. I like the look that I get from that method. My question is, how long should a 1/35 scale antennae be? I have seen some shorter (about 3 inches) and some longer (over 6 inches). I don't know if all antennaes are the same length from bradley to abrams to 113 to hummer, etc. The only thing i remember from my Army days was that when assembled, it was taller than me.
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks
Joe

Antenna are a sort of "relative" thing. As long as it's not grossly over long or too short you should be able to get away with what you put. But if you want something more definate find out the legnth of the type of antenna you want and multiply that legnth by .0286 (decimal equivilant of 1/35) and that will give you a good idea of how long the antenna should be.

3 foot antenna would be: 36 x .0286=1.0296 inches.

Modern (1960 - present) US FM radio antennas are approximately 8 feet long, (96 inches), being made of two four foot sections. Antennas for AM/UHF radios come in different links and are often made of metal, but are not common on most tactical vehciles we model. The FM antennas are made of fiberglass with a metal core and only the top section has any flex, so stiff wire is an excellent material for making the antenna. An 8-foot antenna in 1/35 scale will be approximately 2.74" long.

The way I build mine is too make the mount spring (which is something like 8-10 inches long in 1:1 scale), like you do, out of fine wire. I use wire from an old Tamiya electric motor. I glue the spring to the top of the antenna mount , after removing the moulded on spring. After the glue is set, I then insert the antenna wire into the top of the spring. I then have an antenna that will bend at the spring and only towards the tip when tied down.

A note on US Army antenna mounts. They are plastic, to be an insulator, and cannot be painted. I use a dark semi-gloss OD color for my vehicles from the 60-70s and maybe a Forest Green semi-gloss color for later vehicles.

Also, if you are adding a second antenna for the auxillary receiver (found on Pre-SINCGARS command vehicles), they are different from the antennas for the receiver/transmitter. They too were about 8 feet long, but were smaller in diameter than yout little finger and were made of metal. Their mounts do not have springs, but had a pale red rubber section on the mount that allowed them to bend.

Hope this is useful.

Jeff

OK, we have a good size on modern US.....2 and 3/4 how about WW2 stuff.

German
US
Russian
British

blaster,

I do not have any hard evidence, but my gut feeling says it probably will not be that much different, maybe a little shorter.

Because, at some point, a flexible antenna will buckle/bend under it's own weight, and therefor adding height serves no purpose. To get higher antenna's one needs stiff steel antenna's. But those are probably to easy to spot, while at the ame time easy to snap off, when racing and encountering tree's, bridges etc. Just watch what heppens when you stretched sprue... if very thin, above a certain height it starts to bend under its own weight.

For US Radio Equipment, I consult my copy of TM 11-227. Most modelers are interested in the vehicle mounted equipment. Depending on the Radio Set mounted in the vehicle, different types of antennas are used. Example:

The SCR-509/510. I chose this one because Verlinden has a resin one that is good to use for WW II models. The other Radio that comes in this Verlinden set is the SCR-508 - which is commonly used to communicate with units equipped with the -509 or -510.

The -509 is the small square one cast with a telephone handset on the top of the cabinet. The SCR-509 was used for Tank Battalion units, Armored Regiments, Infantry Regiment, Short Range Reconnaissance, Liaison Officers, and for intra-battery/intra-battalion communications. It had a range of 5 miles and is similar in appearance to the SCR-510 - except for an added power pack to the base of the radio set cabinet. This was a widly used Radio in both vehicular and man-portable operations. Both the SCR-509 and -510 could be fitted with the AN-45 Antenna - which came in 8 foot long "fishpole", telescopic mast, and vehicular "whip" configurations. The larger SCR-508 set used a 9 foot long "fishpole" antenna.

The little "handie-talkie" in the set represents the SCR-585. This one's telescopic antenna is 39 inches long. Interestingly enough, this resin radio also looks very much like the SCR-536 used by paratroopers and anti-tank infantry units. The antenna fit for this radio (it has a longer range) is a 44 inch telescopic part - that turns the Radio "on" when the antenna is extended.

Other Radio fits used antennas some 15 feet long - as in the case of a Willys Jeep mounting the SCR-506 Radio Set. There is no resin version of this equipment - but it fit on either the right or left wheelhouse in the back of the Jeep. The -506 was used for tactical operations in Tank Destroyer, Armored Cavalry, Engineers, and Field Artillery units. It equipped some armored vehicles as well. The -506 used a 15 foot "fishpole" antenna - for mobile operations. When the vehicle was emplaced or stationary - the crew could/would fit a 10 foot extension to this antenna. The 10 foot extension was not used during march or combat.

I apologize for a longish answer, but I wanted to choose a few examples for US AFV modelers. Some veterans and sharp-eyed modelers out there can pick out radio fits on models just by the length of an antenna. Geekish - I admit - but I pay particular attention to little tidbits like that...

Gunnie

Just looking at one of the revell Sd.Kfz. 250/3 models I bought (a rebox of the DML kit), they tell you to stretch a piece of sprue for 7.5 cm (a fraction under 3"), for the antenna.

Hopes this helps,

Harm

thanks alot for all the feedback guys. that pretty much narrows down a standard size for me.thanks again
joe
also i hope to post some more pics soon of 2 hummvs i just finished