Building The Fujimi 1/350 IJN Kongo, Part 2

Part 16: The Rigging…

I use fly fishing tippet which is a type of resin coated thread that will hold its shape and is very strong (lures are made out of this stuff). Now comes the voodoo. For my support rigging (funnels and masts) I use 6/0, which is .005 mm. For standard rigging, I use 8/0 which is .003 mm. The higher number tippet corresponds to the SMALLER diameter. The stuff I use is called UNI-Thread. It's available in many colors (I have black, brown, and tan) and sizes and comes in 200 yards, which is more than enough.

To expand on this, I unravel a large amount of tippet from the spool so I won't have any issues with the spool colliding with the kit. I put a small spot of CA glue where the rigging will start (use a toothpick). After the CA has dried, I start to run the rigging to where it next needs to go (say, the top of a mast), put a dot of glue there to secure it, and so on. The nice thing about tippet is that thanks to the thin resin coat, it can be "shaped". So if your rigging has to hang loose and bow along a curve, just run your finger along to shape it before anchoring to the second point.

For items like the small insulators seen near the rigging connections, that's just a small dab of white glue that will congeal into a blob naturally and works pretty well, then painted when dry.