Hi, Guys. I am FINALLY getting somewhere with my HEMTT, and I was wondering if you have a "go-to" product you use for the braided cable commonly found on winches, etc. Trumpeter didn't include any (thanks, Trumpeter!), but many times the string that is provided looks like, well, string. Any suggestions? I have tried wire and various threads, but nothing looks right so far. Also, Trumpeter did not provide wire for the extremely visible air lines. Any suggestion as to wire size? I am also not sure about the glad hands. I know they should be tiny at this scale, but I am not sure how to make mine. Any pics from someone who finished theirs? Thanks for the help!

I use braided fishing line for my winches ,available at sporting goods stores. I just picked one that seemed right the roll cost about 8 bucks, and will last several lifetimes

That's a great idea! Off to the sporting goods store today! Thanks!

FWIW I got out my calipers and measured the wire that Trumpeter includes with the LMTVT (M1082) trailer.

It's 1/32" thick (or 0.033 inches)




And I'm really new at this but there are a couple of items I've found on-line that might help:

1. I bought an assortment of lead wire (used in fly tying) for cables. For $15.99 Cabela's has a set with 2x 0.015, and 1x each 0.020, 0.025, 0.030, 0.035.

Looks like the largest two are most useful here for air hoses and such.

2. This is probably stupid, but Ngineering has some tiny stainless tubing. I bought a couple of each size thinking it could be useful for connectors/fittings.

3. Since you asked about glad hands, I also bought a set of "O Scale" (1/48) white metal glad hands from Wiseman (I found them on eBay). Was $11.20 for a dozen shipped.

Perhaps a bit underscale but they look pretty nice.

4. Finally, and probably less useful of all, but I've been wondering how to connect my trailers and trucks together but still allow them to be separated for transport/storage/etc.

So again on eBay I found a source of 100 1/16" x 1/32" Neodymium magnets (search "tiny disc magnets"). These look to be useful and almost in scale for a fitting at the end of a hose (or looks like it could be).

I'm not sure if any of the above is useful so as always your mileage may vary, objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear, and don't taunt happy fun ball.

Regards,

Brad.

I have a friend in Britton who builds Bryer Horse scale, fancy road coaches. He uses cut up strips of what I will call business card magnet sheets as door closures, boot lid locks and to hold the working carriage folding entry steps in the stowed position.

The magnets works wonderfully for all this!

Thanks for some great ideas, Brad. I checked out the Wiseman glad hands, but they are more the railroad type. I am looking for the rounded ones, usually red and blue. I have yet to attempt to scratch these -- for such small parts, they may turn out just fine. Maybe not. My past attempts at scratching seatbelts and whatnot were not met with much success.

Thanks for measuring the wire. I found some at the hardware store I think will work. We shall see.

The magnets sound very interesting. I have friends who use them on 1:24 and 1:25 models to keep doors closed, etc. It would be neat to see them used to connect a tractor and trailer.

And thanks for reminding me about using stuff around the house, Michael. I have a few of those magnets on the refrigerator. I need to remember them when I want to try the magnet trick on something.

So I did some searches looking for scale model glad hands and found a number of sites where the subject was clearly a truck but there was always a suggestion to use an O (or G) scale railroad part.

I took a closer look at the Wiseman parts and I think you can simply add a small styrene (or PE) disc on the end (in the small slot on the smaller piece) and it should be what I consider "close enough".

I can see why people suggest them. They look like good fodder for tweeking but really aren't especially cost effective and if I find any other solution that looks as good (or better) I'll switch.

Thanks for letting me know the difference between the parts (I should have looked before right?)

Of course for the truly feeble modeler there is Perfect Scale Modellbau

And no offense meant about the feeble part - I ordered a couple of sets just to see how they look (and in case all my other efforts fail).

I guess I tend to use the shotgun approach to my hobbies - try everything because something will eventually work (and might even look decent)

Regards,

Brad.