"Rigging material" Topic

I am painting some Langton 1:2400 ships and I am trying to come up with the best material to employ as my shrouds and ratlines. Any suggestions?

Langton sells photo-etched schrods and ratlines.

I like Langton's photo etched stuff a lot for 1:1200 ships, but I think they're going to be way, way out of scale for 1:2400 ships.

I've never worked on any ships in that scale, but perhaps there's a very fine mesh or screen product out there that could be adapted for the purpose. Even pieces of window screen cut to shape, maybe drybrushed to bring out the texture? (Sorry I have nothing more specific to offer than that!) – James

When did Langton start doing 1/2400? I have a bunch of their stuff, and it's all 1/1200. Also, their website doesn't list anything in that scale.
BWW

Sorry my mistake. I am not 100% with it today. That should read 1:1200

Yup I've used some of the langton photo etched stuff and it looks impressive when it's on the model. and to my mind must be less fiddly than using mesh.

Haven't used the langton photo etched shrouds/ratlines. I bought some for the 74's but they look out of scale. The distance from one horizontal ratline to the next is more than a man's hight at that scale. I found some mesh at Hancock's Fabrics that I think looks more in scale.

A couple issues to keep in mind when choosing the rigging for your ship models:

- Ratlines are only necessary if you are building the model to be an accurate, fine-scale model of the ship it represents, with as much detail as is possible (or practical) in the chosen scale. For wargame models, it is usually sufficient to produce a model which gives a convincing visual impression of the ship as it would have been seen from a distance. If you examine the paintings and drawings of maritime artists who painted their subjects from life, you will notice that the shrouds (which were quite stout, since they were the primary means of resisting the wind's forward pressure on the mast) are quite prominent, while the ratlines (which were much finer ropes, since they only had to bear the weight of the seamen ascending to work the sails) are seldom depicted, and when they are shown are usually just hinted at. Merely suggesting them or leaving them out entirely was not laziness on the part of the artist, but a reflection of the fact that, being so much finer, they were not clearly visible from any distance.

- Shrouds were not parallel. They were spaced quite widely at the channels and converged at the masthead. Using a square or rectangular mesh will give you somewhat outsized ratlines which are neither sufficiently numerous nor spaced closely enough to be correct, and shrouds that run parallel and end abruptly partway up, which looks unnatural.

I have looked at various things to use, but I definitely recommend the brass ratlines. As they come on the sprues they are sometimes long for the masts…depends on how uniform you are about drilling that hole for each mast, I'm sure!…but for ease of work I wouldn't use anything else. Painting them is great too…I spray prime them and even spray seal them before use, then do a simple touch up with a paint brush after they are mounted. Langton used to sell a mesh screen-like material but they cut that out.
Rob

I rig in shrouds in thread with no mesh or brass rat lines. Neither is scaled right because of model size limitations. Ratline patterns are too square or heavy.

I use craft store black nylon coated, stainless steel "thread" # 0.015" diameter. see

"Rigging and assembling little metal sailing ships" 18 Jan 2011, this Message Board.

Just another note is I've found that I can use Aluminum foil (used around the kitchen) to mold around the ship hull and keep it stationary for gluing on masks and sails. If you leave surplus foil extending from the sides and then cut it with scissors to leave a flap, then you can move this and krinkle it around the mask to hold it still while the glue (I use white glue) dries.