I need some help to figure out how best to form this ladder and the grab rail on top of the roof. The grab rail is not attached to the ladder having a small gap between the end of the railand the start of the ladder.



Thought about superglue or soldering wire and thin brass strip. I have not had much luck with super glue before and have no idea how to solder.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Nige

Nige, your ideas will work, and truthfully, will work well. With regards to soldering, with a decent iron (don't cheap out, here... just cause frustration!) or small torch, soldering isn't difficult. The trick is, heat the work-surface, not the solder itself. When the work is hot enough, it will melt the solder and suck it into any gaps and joins. It'll be basically like doing copper plumbing.

With SuperGlue, I'd recommend a "third hand" device to hold things steady. Be useful for so many other things, too!

Another option, and it's one that I'll be using on a dio (hit my link to the campaign!) is to purchase some styrene. It's sold here in Canada under the brand name "Evergreen" and probably a few others It's available in a wide range of profiles, from I-beam and squares rod to half-round tubing and plain or pre-textured sheets. If you can't find it in your model shop, you should be to get it at a model railroading supply store. Failing that, I'm sure you can order it online. All you need then, is a razor saw and model glue. Oh! I almost forgot... there's also such a thing as flexible super styrene, which I would assume would work much the same as regular styrene.

I hope this helps you, sir!
Lewis (Or shall I sign it, Leodhas?)

One of the guys on another forums came up with this tool

http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=GRM-GT001

Looks like this could be useful

Thanks for the help Lewis

Nige

Nige,

That "thingie" at LM will be too thin to support the multiple bending....it's basically "thicker" PE......

For making grab handles, I did a how-ta-do-it on ModelGeek....should still be on the front page.

For soldering, go with what Lewis suggested...you need a "third-hand" to come out clean and save some of yer sanity. Just "smart" (and easier) using something like that.

Mike

Nige, you're welcome!

Mike.... (holding up hands and ducking head) don't hit me! I should have thought of mentioning that... it was good! I'm going to be using that method on the scratched MG Tower in my dio, and probably on the scratched hatch, too...

Egad, I'm going to be doing a lot of scratch-building over the next couple of months!

That's a nice little tutorial from Mike. It can help you nicely in your particular situation.
Normally, I'd want to solder something like that. Resistance soldering is great, but a tad expensive. Many years ago I soldered together a turret basket for a Centurion, and learned quite a bit from the experience. In your case, however, I'd approach it a little differently. I would make all of the necesary bends for the long upper right piece in your photo, and install it. I would then make the lower left hand piece, and file a small half moon into the end of it where it joines the first piece. Then Insert it into the model, and superglue the upper end to the first piece. Then you just need to add the cross pieces, using the half moon cuts again to help the pieces fit. You could also solder it in place without harming the plastic, if you make sufficient use of heat sinks. I think the whole thing would remain stronger if you do it this way rather than trying to assemble it first, and then install it. Either way, heat sinks are necssary to protect one joint from coming apart as you do the next one.
Also, us a good flux, and clean the area where you want to make the joint with a little acid first.
This is an example of how closely you can make your joints if you use the techniques described above:



" If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest of freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council, nor your arms".

Samuel Adams

Heat sink?????????????????? Is that a piece of wire or something to divert the heat away?

I would not have a clue how to make one or where best to use it. Any advise or pics of progress during soldering processes?

Thanks for everybodies help!!!!!

Nige

I heat sink can be nothing more than an alligator clip. If it's attached to a piece of wire, it can bleed off even more heat. Put them between the joint you are soldering and the ones already done.
Most guys who grew up in the 60's and 70's probably still have a few lying around...



" If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest of freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council, nor your arms".

Samuel Adams

I kinda thought it would be something like that, but not having tried the solder yet, I am glad you gave me that tip. I can now imagine all the good stuff already done melting back off if I did not get that right. I would've probably chucked the model across the shed with dispair seeing my kit melt around me too.

Cheers for the great hints

Nige