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So, working on my Tau, and I had a good idea. I'd like to make sensor spines for my vehicles that look like the maxillary barbels on a catfish. (The long ones coming off the corner of the mouth.) Here's what I'm looking for.



1. Flexibility. I don't want them to be so rigid that they would break.
2. Elasticity. I want them to pop back into place if they are bent (within reason).
3. Length. Ideally, I would like them to extend three quarters of the way down the tank chassis. Preferably they would be positioned in such a way that they aren't sticking out to the side, but instead running alongside the tank, from their attachment point at the nose.
4. Tapering. If I had my druthers, I would like them to be thicker at the base and taper to a fine point (not unlike a real barbel).

Tragically, I can't think of any material I could make them out of. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this even a good idea?

Only thing i can think of that would work is modeling putty like milliput or greenstuff. I doubt it would be ideal though unfortunately.

Yeah, I think that would probably snap pretty easy. Guitar wire? Is the larger guitar wire coiled smaller wire? It looks that way...

Try checking ebay for bits stores selling chaos spawn or tyranid mawloc kits, those come with plastic spines like what you're talking about.

Reminds me of the front lasers on the Marauder from mechwarrior. Maybe attach them by a ball and socket type design so that they can move. Or even a ball-bearing to magnet design. That would keep them from breaking. For tapering you could get several sizes of plastic tube. Glue the smaller ones inside the larger ones and then smooth it out with GS or sanding...

Fishing line

Multilayered plastic tube sounds like it could very well be the best option.

Now, anyone got an idea on where to FIND flexible plastic tubing in various sizes?

I second heavy duty finishing line.

They will basically never break, is always flexible and its ironic as hell.

Hmmm...fishing line might work really well too...

You could give pipe cleaners with the fuzzy bits removed a shot.

 Kanluwen wrote:
You could give pipe cleaners with the fuzzy bits removed a shot.

That would be metal wire, which could work as well.

If you want to make them, use wire and then dip the wire in silicone to build the shape of the barbel. My father used that technique to make the whiskers on a sturgeon he had taxidermied.

Wow, martaug. That sounds like a labor intensive process, but it might yield the best results. Did they have give to them when they were completed?

Kanluwen, I considered pipe cleaners, but they don't meet my size requirements. I love burned-off pipe cleaners. (Check out the dread in my gallery for some really cool use of them.) Unfortunately, they don't taper at all, and while I could achieve a tapering effect by coiling the pipe cleaner, once coiled the wire becomes way, way too short, and I can't really think of a good way to connect the pipe cleaners to one another smoothly.

Plastic broom bristles. They are long enough, and flex, although you might have to look around to find ones that are thick. Commonly used by armor modelers for the same thing. They will take paint poorly, so you would probably want to prime with Krylon Fusion or similar.

You know, I just had another idea that would even add a little bit "extra" to the spines.

Why not try using Army Painter or another company's barbed wire? You can straighten that stuff out fairly well and it cuts quite easily along with holding a pose well once you set it.

I would use guitar wire, the heavy duty stuff.

It it great to have around anyway, for various conversions and other projects.