For my Trumpeter 1/350 USS Hornet “Doolittle Raid” project the reference photos show coils of rope used for mooring the ship up to the pier. In order to replicate them I made my own. I have some 50lbs test braided fishing line. Although it is green, it has the look and texture of rope. They make it in various sizes so 25lbs test would be for 1/700 scale and 50lbs test for 1/350. I tried to just coil it on the bench but could not get it to stay coiled. I then made a jig to coil and glue it together. I took a styrene rod and drilled a hole to hold the line. Next I took some kapton tape and put it on a piece of sheet styrene. I used CA glue to hold the coil together. CA glue does not adhere to the kapton tape. I then pushed the rod with the line thru the hole and down to the surface of the sheet. I carefully wrapped the line in a coil. I glued the coil together every few layers. Once I attained the size of the coil I wanted I pushed the rod back up and then made a loop to place around the capstan on the ship deck.
I then cut the styrene rod on the bottom side of the coil. I then used the same drill I used to make a hold in the sheet styrene to drill out the center of the coil. Once removed, I then cut a small piece of line to create the other end of the mooring line. I then painted it using Tamiya XF-57 Buff. With the line being dark green it adds some nice highlights to the “rope” on areas that show under the paint. The mooring line was then glued into place. Below are the photos of the steps.
You must log in to post a comment.