Safety Rail feedback

[greenman407]

On this Oscar , you can see the safety rail extending back from the sail back down the sloped part of the outside hull. How does it work??? It appears to be just a pipe attached to the hull every so often. If you were to attach a ring over it and slide it along it would catch at every attachment point. Also on my Oscar, which is 1/96 scale, the drawings show it to be about 3/64 in dia. 1/16" brass solid round is too big. The safety rail also appears on the drawings to be the same dia. as the handrail on the sides of the sail.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

The Soviet submarine safety-track is round in section as you observed. The safety harness worn by a sailor terminates in a horse-shoe shaped ring. The open end of the ring permits passage of the track-to-deck studs. The other end of the ring is an eye in which is stitched the lanyard that connects the ring to the harness.

The American safety-track is a 'T' section extrusion. Our safety-harness horse-shoe shaped ring is 'flatter' in form, that's all.

In both types there are breaks in the track (usually near doors and hatches) where you can slip your ring in or out of the track.

David,

[greenman407]

Thanks Mr. Dave

[tsenecal]

if you are worried about safety rail being scale diameter, K&S makes brass rod that is .020", .030", and 3/64".

[greenman407]

Yep! Im going to swing by the hobby store and pick up some 3/64ths

[KevinMc]

For what it's worth I couldn't get a length of brass rod long enough to do the whole track in one shot so chose a different path. I was also concerned about the long skinny glue joint becoming fractured due to different expansion rates of brass and GRP, and that such a protruding feature with lesser bonding strength would frequently be in need of re-attachment. As a result of all this I actually went with 0.030" diameter styrene rod for my safety track and I'm pleased to report that after four seasons it's never come away from the hull. Your mileage may vary.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

In my movie effects days I learned the trick of using solid 60/40 soldering wire (available in a veriety of diameters) to simulate pipe and electrical conduit runs on miniatures representing compartment ceilings and walls, and building exteriors.

I've used solder wire almost exclusively to represent Soviet style safety-tracks on 1/96 and 1/72 models. It's easy to bend, will 'give' when the item it's attached to slowly or suddenly shifts, can be worked with tools and dies to specific cross-sections and takes very well to CA and other adhesives.

Before priming or painting the soldering wire has to be pickled with a quick pass of Ferric Chloride then scrubbed with a water-soaked rag and dried.

[greenman407]

Oh Dats Perty. I love it when you pull from your archives.

[greenman407]

Attaching the safety rail looks easy but what about the hand rail on the side of the sail? Its got all those stand offs that would have to be made up? When I was into model trains(HO) they had a detail kit so that you could make up your own but the stand offs are quite different.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Easy if you have a resistive type soldering machine -- it permits you to first mount the stand-offs on the side of the sail and to then solder-in-place the rail proper.

Otherwise you have to solder on the stand-offs to the rail off model, and that requires a special holding fixture for stand-offs and rail.

David,

[Rpmtech1]

For what it's worth I couldn't get a length of brass rod long enough to do the whole track in one shot so chose a different path. I was also concerned about the long skinny glue joint becoming fractured due to different expansion rates of brass and GRP, and that such a protruding feature with lesser bonding strength would frequently be in need of re-attachment. As a result of all this I actually went with 0.030" diameter styrene rod for my safety track and I'm pleased to report that after four seasons it's never come away from the hull. Your mileage may vary.

They have some great styrene jacketed metal rod. Its hard to find from a distributor though.... I think Plastruct makes it. Wonderfull stuff. I ususally order some stuff from Towerhobbies monthly, and they have tons of plastruct stuff but none of that plastic coated rod... Just my luck.