Simulating Flexible Hose

[joemac]

As more of a matter of practice than anything else, I decided to finally assemble a kit that I received as a gift, some twenty-something years ago. It's a 1:25 kit of a VW Beetle, made by Revell, called Penny Pincher.

As far as resin kits go, I think it's pretty bad, but I'm only doing this to practice my unused skills and try out a few things.

I've had to modify several things, such as removing the flares from the fenders and some flashing/bad spots/poor molding and just tidying things up.

Being a VW tech from the sixties, I've rebuilt/repaired thousands of these air-cooled engines. I can picture every component and detail.

The engine that is supplied in this kit leaves much to be desired, as far as completeness and detail. I decided to change a few things and one item I had been thinking about was the heater hoses that connect the fan housing to the heater system. On the real thing it is a pair of lengths of two-inch paper/foil/paper flexible hoses, usually black on the exterior. The surface has a texture, formed by the groove that is there which affords the hose its stretch-ability and flexibility. I thought about how I might replicate the effect.

The "hoses" in the kit are totally unacceptable

I thought I would try something. I was so pleased with the result that I just had to come here and post it.

I took a small piece of black sprue tree and chucked in in my cordless drill. It wasn't perfectly round, so I spun it and held a small file against it until it was acceptable. I tapered the tip, slightly.

Then the fun part: I spun a 3mm x.5mm die onto it and carefully worked it up and down the piece and, voila! I now had a perfect representation of what I was trying to mimic. It far exceeded my expectations.

A little heat from the side of a candle flame and some careful bending and it's perfect.

Any time you need a piece of what looks like black flex hose, that's how you do it. I would imagine different sizes would also work, depending on the scale you're working with.

I tried taking some photos, but my camera is only 3.2 meg, so the detail becomes somewhat lost.

Edited January 6, 2011 by joemac

[sjordan2]

Very handy tip.

Here's another method, but I'd like to compare yours and this one side by side for realism.

http://www.italianhorses.net/Tutorials/FlexHose/flexhose.htm

[Draggon]

The wire and teflon tape is a great idea for brake ducts, but no way do they resemble VW heater hoses. I like your idea of running a die over sprue! Thats pretty ingenious. I bet it looks just like the real thing!

[sjordan2]

Well, I thought the tread was about flexible hose in general. Draggon, what are you replicating?

[Harry P.]

As more of a matter of practice than anything else, I decided to finally assemble a kit that I received as a gift, some twenty-something years ago. It's a 1:25 kit of a VW Beetle, made by Revell, called Penny Pincher.

As far as resin kits go, I think it's pretty bad,

If it's a Revell kit it ain't resin!

[joemac]

My bad. Styrene, then.

BTW sjordan2, nice job on the Teflon ducting. Tres cool.

My son came home and we took a couple of pics with his 5 meg camera, but I couldn't upload them, for some reason. I just got an announcement that I was unable to load such files. Jpegs, they are... (?)

[dougp]

Instead of usning teflon tape, try using heat shrink tubing. You can get it in almost any size. The only limitation is how small of diameter tubing/sprue you can wrap with wire.

[crazyjim]

Way back when I used to make radiator hoses by taking the kit hose and wrap it with some very thick black sewing thread.

[sjordan2]

My bad. Styrene, then.

BTW sjordan2, nice job on the Teflon ducting. Tres cool.

My son came home and we took a couple of pics with his 5 meg camera, but I couldn't upload them, for some reason. I just got an announcement that I was unable to load such files. Jpegs, they are... (?)

Thanks, but that's a link to Alex Kustov's tutorials at italianhorses.net