Aerials for tanks and vehicles

[Colonel White]

After stabbing myself on numerous occasions and now running out of Savlon ! I decided to look at alterrnative materials for Aeriels or antenna if you want to be posh .
After buying a cheap hand brush from Home bargains ,I went about trimming the black bristles off the brush . Once a hole is drilled out in the normal way on the turret(British) these can be filled with a dab of superglue into the hole and then plugged with the new aeriel.

Hey presto you have a nice black aerial (which can be painted) and is fully flexible if caught accidently without drawing blood.

I am quite certain this method will work for you guys modelling in 28mm as well.

So far done 5 @ 20mm Cromwells with double aerials(A & B set ).
Trouble is I can't get of of the habit now of wiggling the aerials !

[Invisible officer]

Trouble is I can't get of of the habit now of wiggling the aerials !

Sounds familar to me.

With cheap plastic brushes in all sizes available I use them for models in all sizes for many years. Saved a lot of blood.

[Parus Ater]

It's going to sound cruel so I'll explain first. If you have a cat have a look around where they've been sleeping and save them cast whiskers!

Drill a 0.5mm hole dab the root ind in superglue and push in the hole. Nip the tip off with scissors to give it a flat end, paint.

[Colonel White]

The Cats Protection Leaugue and the RSPCA want a word with you. Apparently cats around Edinburgh are wondering around devoid of Whiskers

[Biggus Dickus]

I used to do that "Melt a piece of sprue over a candle and then pull" routine...but modern plastic sprues seem to lack elasticity.............sorry, I don't think that helped very much did it?

[Comte Michel]

I used to do the stretched sprue thing, only certain makes of sprue worked though. If I recall right the Airfix stuff was great but the Tamiya stuff just snapped. But then I too discovered the cheap brush method and I never looked back.

The brush bristles have the added advantage that they stick up straight and don't tend to go into a curve like whiskers and sprue. And I know from personal experience that (at least US) military aerials don't curve unless you tie them down.

[Big Al]

I used to do the stretched sprue thing, only certain makes of sprue worked though. If I recall right the Airfix stuff was great but the Tamiya stuff just snapped. But then I too discovered the cheap brush method and I never looked back.

The brush bristles have the added advantage that they stick up straight and don't tend to go into a curve like whiskers and sprue. And I know from personal experience that (at least US) military aerials don't curve unless you tie them down.

For some reason the scene from the James Bond film Octopussy, when Roger Moore climbs out onto the roof of the aeroplane and ends up bending the aerial and whacking his adversary in the face with it. Ludicrous, I know, but it made me laugh!

[pbeccas]

I use the bristles off the wifes dust pan brush. Great aerials.

[Comte Michel]

That's all well and good but you just wait until there are no bristles left and she beats you over the head with what remains of the brush.

[Parus Ater]

The Cats Protection Leaugue and the RSPCA want a word with you. Apparently cats around Edinburgh are wondering around devoid of Whiskers

My cat has a couple of broken whiskers but I didn't do it to her!

Whenever I need an aerial I just have a shufty in her current sleeping place and I always come up with one. I used to have a Vampire counts army that had been based with bones from owl pellets I collected. I'll admit that one was a step too far.