0,8 mm Copper wire (2 m)

RP Toolz 0.8 mm Copper wire (2 m)

Copper wire 0.8 mm in diameter on a 2 meter coil from RP Toolz. This is not a kit but a modeling material, a stock item from which you create the elements on a model that plastic molds have no chance of producing thin enough and strong enough at the same time. Eight tenths of a millimeter is a medium to heavier gauge: it still shapes easily in the hand, yet it already carries a load.

Use

• Heavier hydraulics and lines: the main hydraulic runs on landing gear legs, arms and lifting mechanisms, where the hose is meant to look substantial.
• Load-bearing pins: wire glued into predrilled holes carries the weight. Typically for mounting arms, barrels, crane jibs or heavier resin parts that glue alone would not hold.
• Barrels and tubular elements of smaller calibers: machine gun barrels, exhausts of smaller cross section, grab handles, steps, probes.
• Struts and pins: bracing on biplanes, supports in a diorama, pins for firmly mounting heavier parts.
• The material behaves differently from plastic: it bends by hand, holds its shape and does not snap while being adjusted. A fragile resin or 3D printed part can be reinforced from the inside with this copper, and all it takes is to drill a hole and glue the wire in with cyanoacrylate.

Working and painting

Shorten it with cutters and form the bends around a drill bit or a cylindrical tool. Copper can be soldered, so it will even build a genuinely load-bearing soldered frame. Before painting, degreasing and a primer are a must, because paint holds badly on polished copper without an undercoat and peels off when the wire is bent. The end of a wire that is meant to look like a tube can be lightly sanded or chamfered.

Who it is for

For modelers who need a dependable structural material: detailers of vehicles and aircraft, diorama builders and everyone who works with resin and 3D prints and wants thin parts to survive handling.

The cut ends are sharp. Paints, primer and glue are not included in the package.