Shrouds n Stay Wires

Section 20 of the build.. The Stay wires.

Robbe supply a braided stainless steel wire for the stays and shrouds, once cut to length, the ends are assembled with various loops and fittings as per the drawings.

I followed the Robbe instructions to assemble the shrouds. except for the final "fixing". I am reliably informed.. their advised soldering method is, well difficult. As you have two very different material, steel and brass, requiring different fluxes, different temperatures..

As soldering is one of my least favourite elements of ANY modelling..I am not confident adding to my potential failures !

I took the advice of another Robbe Atlantis builder, Colin Harris.

Colin experimented , had success and passed the following information on to me, which I followed.

Use the wood and nail jig as described by Robbe, add the fittings ( loose) to the wire and cut a little over length. Now slide on some heat shrink sleeve, mix up a small qty of Stabilit Express resin.. add to the brass sleeve AND the wires... Tension the wire... then crimp the brass sleeve.

Wipe off the excess, and leave to dry.. You can do several ends at one time to use the resin, before it starts to cure.

When dry, I left overnight, complete the other end, again ,under tension and repeat the above process. Once you are happy with the result, feel free to test it with a vice and pliers.. IT IS VERY , VERY strong.. far more so , than any of my rubbish soldering would have been.

Finally, cut off the excess wire & slip the heat shrink into place .. nice finish.. job done. I shall complete the mast shroud loops in the same way.

My thanks to Colin for the idea :)