How Many Strings?

[wwp]

Does anyone know how many strings the typical model aircraft had for flying sequences? Where were they placed, how were they attached to the model, and then how were they attached off camera?

It was generally hard to see the wires, and on ships like Thunderbird 2, you couldn't really see which spots on the ship the strings were attached to. If they wrapped under the wings, you couldn't tell. . . and there didn't seem to be any "hidden" hooks or loops for the strings to be tied to.

[air terrainean]

Good question ! I think it varied, depending on the size of the model, what it was made from, and what it was required to do. I think pins were normally used to attach the wires if the model was made of wood. Fibreglass models would probably have been fitted with eyelets. Plasticine may well have been used to cover any obvious mounting points.

[colin]

You can actually SEE the mounting point for the port wing of TB1 in the first still in the closing titles of each episode

[oshvision]

Strings in car sequences; if the cars were mounted on a rollin road, the cars would be attached to strings on the front axle, using a triangle configurment to keep the cars in a steady line, if you watch the thunderbirds episode "Move,and your'e dead", you can see this quite clearly, :)

[colin]

Also in City of Fire, you can see the wire mounting points on the Fire Engines

Also in The Uninvited, as the Half-track is running through the sand dunes, there is a moment when you can see the buried wire, come to the surface

[sfgameruk]

Eagle Transporters had short, black sections painted onto the transverse beams of the support truss that ran the length of the ship. These were to disguise the black wires that supported them when in flight.

The models were brass and fibreglass and weighed around forty pounds each, so wire-rigs had to be pretty hefty.

Space shots sometimes used a solid, blacked-out pylon. The model was static and the camera moved around it. All shot silent, of course. The "studio" was a Nissan hut at Bray and the floor was terribly noisy!

RobinH

[roose1982]

In CITY OF FIRE you can see are fairly obvious cable tugging The Mole along - see photo here...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HIlA7zCI6sE/TaY_krLfOwI/AAAAAAAAAGc/A-4xGMWT1rw/s1600/mole.jpg