Fan and pulley belts

[Lorne]

Anyone know what the best material to use to simulate fan belts! Something that stays taught on the pulley's and is in scale?? 1/25 scale preferred. 

thanks

L

[Plowboy]

When I work with kit belts, I thin them down to scale. From scratch, I would try some .020 styrene rod. Sand one side flat. Then wrap it around the pulleys with the flat side out starting and ending on the crank pulley. 

[peteski]

Like Roger, I have thinned the molded "belt" to make it more in-scale. But then creating a groove in the part of the pulley that does not have the belt on it is a pain.

I have also removed the molded belts and grooved the pulleys. For belt material I have a black antistatic bag that was used to hold an electronic circuit board. It is fairly heavy vinyl-like black-color material . I slice thin (belt-width) strips of it using a steel ruler and a fresh single-edge razor blade. When all the pulleys are assembled on the engine, I then wrap the thin black strip around them few times (to build up the thickness)  In smaller scales (1:43) I use a single or 2 turns. Larger scales might need 3 or 4 turns to build up the right thickness. I use CA glue to hold the belt material on the pulley (both at the beginning and end of the wrapping process).

Here is a (magnified) example of a 1:43 scale engine with such a belt. If you look carefully, you can see that the belt is made up of 2 layers.

 

I suppose that making a belt by slicing strips of electrical tape would work too (it is probably similar thickness to that antistatic bag I use).  But I would first strip off the adhesive, and just use the vinyl itself. I don't trust the sticky adhesive. It might start getting gooey after few years and ooze out from between the layers.  Naphtha (Ronsonol lighter fluid) does a good job removing this type of adhesive. 91% isopropyl alcohol might work too.

Edited March 11, 2020 by peteski

[BubbaBrown]

Masking tape cut to size and painted black.