I know to make an antenna you just heat up some sprue and pull it apart. I have atually gotten quite good it it (being about to make it as thin as sewing thread) but how thick would I need to make the sprue to be a 1/35 scale for a u.s. WWII halftrack M21?

Well since nobody has answered I will give it a shot. My guess would be just the same as the other antennas. Personally I can't see someone looking at a model and thinking that the antenna was wrong unless it was way off or something. Thats just my opinion anyway.

Since most kits tend to be a little overscale on the finer parts, I try to make my replacement stretched sprue antennas thinner than the ones in the kit. Not by much, thin as a hair is TOO thin. I usually make several and choose one that looks right... Not much of a help, am I???

Well..........as most of the others said it's hit and miss. Probably the best gauge is "if it looks right, it probably is. If you were measuring, using a "pied -coulisse, (sorry forgot the English for this tool!) I think it would work out to about .05mm. I think that should be about right. Note that, while not all that common, some antennae have a tendency to taper towards the top section.

Jacko

CaptainJack offered us his words of wisdom again.. and he's right. The antennas I used to work with where 1 cm. at the top and 2.5 cm. at the bottom. Now.....just use the Eagle Modeling Tool to put that into 1/35 scale.... #:-)

Whether an antenna is tapered or not depends on what type of radio it serves. AM type radiops are usually just a long, fairly thin piece of stiff wire, with no discernable taper. FM antennas (including most modern tactical radios) are tapered, because they are usually made of fiberglass with metal filaments (the actual antenna) embedded in them. FM antennas tend to be stiffer, and are often made from two or more pieces that thread together.

Best bet....go to a local music store and buy a set of guitar strings. Ask the clerk for size "nines" these are the thinest set of strings available. Three will be wire wound, three will be smooth. The wire wound are perfect for High Frequency antennas(use the smallest of the three), as they have to wind wire around a fiberglass form to get the proper length to be a half wave length without the antenna being so long it is unusable. For example, a half wavelength for 10meters or 28 Mhz is around 30 feet long!(HF is from 0 to 30 Mhz) For your VHF (40 to 300 Mhz) and UHF (300 to roughly 900Mhz) you can use the smooth strings. The nice thing about a guitar string is once you take it out of the package, it is straight and has alot of "spring" to it. I drill out the mount and attach it with super glue. Since using this method, I have NEVER had another antenna breal off...EVER! You can pick up six strings, roughly three feet long each for as little as $3 a package if you buy whatever is on sale, which there ALWAYS is.

Thanks, that kind of information is useful for novice and advanced modellers alike. giving exact reference material like that is exceedingly helpful.

Jack