Not questioning why. Afterall my IPMS Mustang had to be. But I just had to do sprue mods. I wish I didnt Just Have To. My modeling life would be oso much easier.
No sweat at all. Your question spurred me on to try something. I pondered and pondered how to tackle this issue and I came up with this idea.
I took a no. 12 size snap swivel from the old fishing tackle box and snipped off both ends leaving me with just the eyelet and the end.
Yesterday at my house I hung a new ceiling fan and had plenty of small gauge wire left from the old light fixture and some pieces from the new fan that I did not need. I stripped the wire and then took two strands of the wire and braided them together. A bit of a challenge but what the heck.
I then looped the end of the wire through the eyelet of the swivel which I had partially flattened and twisted the end to the main piece of wire. A drop of glue attached the spring like end of the swivel to the mast.
I will be using some sticky tack to fashion a covering that will simulate the covering of the tensioner system.
A coat of black paint should cover most of the imperfections.
The other end of the antenna wire will be inserted in an opening that is present on the port side of the vertical tail surface.
I realize that the attachment "spring" may be slightly out of scale but I would interested in feedback as to whether this method is kosher or should I take the antenna mast off and look at another way of doing this? The wire can be adjusted to slide to the end of the partially closed eyelet and will be positioned there when some tension is applied to straighten it out.
Thanks for al your anticipated input.
Cheers,
Jeff