need rope ? wire to rope tutorial

[Agentmolar]

Ok, ive not been able to find a decent cord that looks enough like rope for me, so ive made my own.


you can use any thickness of wire you like, obviously the thicker the wire, the larger the rope (no surprises there)

In this one im using .5mm copper wire

take a length.



Fold into three



Snip the ends


Take all the strands holding in pliers at both ends. Frankly a vice would make your life easier, but i dont have one.


Twist one end until the wire starts to rap. Ironically it didnt go as easy as my earlier attempts, but buggered if im doing  multiple versions for you lot. You get the concept.. so go and practice it



Once it is nice and tightly bound looking alot like braided rope. Wrap it around a cylinder , like a pen or exacto handle, voila! Coiled rope.. of a sorts.


Heres some others i prepared earlier

[Custom_Hobby]

Nice work and thanks for posting it!

[Keeper]

Looking good - thanks for the tut AM :)

Having seem rope made in the traditional way, I have a question!  Do you need to keep it under tension the whole time you're twisting the wire?  With real rope, the guys doing the demo said if you don't keep it under tension then the rop won't twist evenly.

I would try it, but I don't have any wire here at work at the moment.

[Agentmolar]

Having tension does help. that might be why i got a better result last time.

[Keeper]

Ta :)  I think I'll try and give it a go, later!

[dargrin]

Nice tut.You can also put the ends in a drill too while holding the other end with pliers. But for short pieces this would  faster.

[Bodhi]

I've used it. Andy from Heresy miniatures gave this tip half a year ago. I find I get the best result if I put both ends into pinvices and then twist them while keeping it tightly stretched. I found it difficult to put on a figure though and make durable enough so for a coil of rope hanging in a belt or stuff like that sculpting it in putty is still my preferred method.

[Agentmolar]

I didnt realise Andy already made this tute. I worked it out on my own. Go figure. Oh well, it made you guys post and keep the thread count going.  :occasion14:

The pin vice idea is great bodhi, you can keep the tension better with that.

[Bodhi]

I didnt realise Andy already made this tute.

He didn't make a tutorial. Just replied briefly to someones question in a thread. So this tutorial describes it much more in detail.