Airfoil shaped styrene?

drbubba43 · 7 July 2005, 05:05 PM

Anybody know a good source for airfoil cross-section styrene rod in various sizes that would be suitable for the flying wires on late and post war biplanes.

If not, any other ideas? I getting tired of sanding square stock, and it is such a distinctive part of the AC that use it that just using the usual round stuff will just not work for anything larger than small runs on 1/72 scale AC.

Ray

7 July 2005, 06:04 PM

Ray, at the risk of sounding a bit crazy, is there anyway you could use rollers of some sort to extrude thin brass wire or stretched sprue to shape? Having two rollers that would just normally allow a sheet of paper to pass, with an appropriate gouge, perhaps made by a Dremel tool while turning the roller. A bit of work to make a tool, but you would never have to worry about finding the stuff again. I can only think of rollers from a coper or printer, but you might be able to make up a jig of your own using other metal rollers, such as those in an old file cabinet drawer. Hope this is of some help.

Tom Oxley

drbubba43 · 7 July 2005, 06:38 PM

Hmmmm.... I'll have to think on it. Currently I have a jig (of sorts) I use to sand square stock to shape. It works but it its a pain getting the stuff symetrical and uniform.

At this point I'm looking for the easy way. Prefab...

Ray

davecww1 · 7 July 2005, 06:50 PM

Hi Ray,
Contrail makes styrene strut material in various sizes, although they are too thick to use for sprue. You can try to heat stretch the contrail stuff, should result in a very fine wire like RAF wire. I have not tried this, but I'm sure some scratchbuilder has. You can buy packs of contrail strut from Roll models for 1 source in the US.
Dave

StephenLawson · 7 July 2005, 08:32 PM

Also extruded brass (airfoil shaped) can be found from Aeroclub called "STRUTZ" great stuff also available from Roll Models on online.

http://www.rollmodels.com/

RAGIII · 7 July 2005, 10:13 PM

Just to lend my 2 cents worth, the following Ideas were given to me recently on the WW1 List.
1. Aeroclub markets a stretchy rigging wire that is suitable for RAF wire.( Has some drawbacks in breaking and ripping apart completed wing cellules)
2. A Line used for tying flys for fly fishing called Tinsel. Sounds really promising!

I have tried with very LITTLE success stretching Aeroclub or any other strut material. Something about the consistency is different from Styrene!! Just to answer questions that may arise, I have stretched many types of styrene including rod, regular sprue and other shapes. Just NO Luck with the Airfoil stuff.
RAGIII

StephenLawson · 8 July 2005, 07:50 AM

The Aeroclub strut plastic is "butyl" the same as some of the "Plastruct" grey type. Not very cooperative when it comes to heat.

drbubba43 · 8 July 2005, 08:59 PM

I'm pretty inept at stretching anything. Except maybe the wasteline of my jeans.

Hard to believe nobody makes this stuff...

Ray