Today’s Handy Dandy Tip – Adding Sling Swivels To Your 1/35 Scale Weapons
If you’re
like me you’ve been through the whole evolution of the scale rifle
sling. First it’s no sling, just glue the gun to a hand ( or a back ).
Then it’s the single strip of whatever material with one end going to
the back and the other end going to the front. Then you get fancy and
fold the sling over for 2/3 the length to make it look a bit closer to
the real thing but it’s still a couple of blobs of glue fore and aft
that hold it in place.
And if
you’re really like me you end up making semi workable slings with
sliding keepers and the whole blob of glue attachment point just doesn’t
cut it anymore. I used to glue tiny little plastic swivels on but they
looked too oversize and these days with failing eyesight and sausage
fingers that was becoming more and more difficult. Magnifiers help the
eyesight but I’ve yet to find a tool to deal with sausage fingers ( a
good range of tweezers helps ).
You’ll
need fine fuse wire, a small drill bit ( I use a #80 ), a strip of
0.25×0.8mm styrene strip and some superglue. And if you’re like me a
good freestanding magnifying glass or Optivisor.
First
drill a hole through the point where the swivel will mount. Then loop
your wire over and feed both ends through the hole. Pull the wire
through until only a small loop is left, then insert the end of the
styrene strip into the loop and finish pulling it tight from the other
side. Make sure the strip is hard up against the weapon. Pull the wire
tight and twist it around to hold it in place.
Then add a
small drop of superglue, enough to fill whatever hole is remaining and
keep the wire in place. I use a shaved down toothpick for this. Leave it
to dry then shave away the excess wire ( you can add a drop of Mr.
Surfacer 1000 to cover up any hole that remains ).
Now remove
the styrene strip ( if it’s too tight just cut it as close to the
swivel as possible without cutting the swivel ) and use a pair of broad
nosed tweezers to slightly flatten down the swivel. There you have it,
one swivel.
Now just
feed your sling through and finish it off however you normally do ( I
usually make workable slide keepers so that once everything is dry I can
then slide them up to secure the sling at the swivel as the real ones
do ).
And don’t forget to remove those mould seams from the butts.
