Old School Police Antenna?

[Rodent]

Anyone know where I could get an old school 1/24-25 whip antenna like this, or at least a decent base that I can drill and use a piece of wire for the mast?

TIA

[Danno]

A lot of kits have an antenna like that. Generally, they call it out as a "CB" Antenna, although it is not. 

Regardless, the trick is to find one and strip the chrome from it. The chrome plating is thick enough it makes the antenna look toy-like. The next trick is to whack off the mast at the top of the coil and replace it with guitar string (G). The mast is typically so thick it doubles up the toy-like look.

Once you've de-chromed it, removed the mold lines, and replaced the mast with a G-string (jokes later, children, I'm trying to help Steve here), the antenna will make a pretty good representation of a period-correct low band VHF antenna. For CHP cars, paint it black. For nearly all others, paint the coil and base aluminum (they weren't chrome). 

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[iamsuperdan]

If you can get your hands on new guitar strings, the heavier wound strings will already have that coiled base.

Here's a quick and dirty example. With a little more effort, you could make this work.

[Rodent]

Thanks Dans. Yes, I have a few nearby stores that sell g-strings. What size is the one in the pic? ?

Dan C's example that would look pretty good mounted on a round bead on top of a flat round base for my use. The coil isn't quite long enough, but I think it would look better than plastic.

I built MPC and AMT kits in the 80s, so I probably have some "baseball bat" CB antennas somewhere, but I wasn't able to find any that had a decent base.

Second issue is making a gutter clip so that the car will fit in its case. And drilling/pinning to a diecast.

[Danno]

With all due respect, Dan (Clark), that solution doesn't replicate the real thing. You'll notice the guitar string coil is a straight coil while the actual antenna has a diamond-like shape. That's why I utilize the plastic part from kits for the coil . . . more realistic. I'll photo up a couple of examples later.

Here's one image of the real deal to illustrate what I mean. 

 

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[Casey]

 

 

 

[iamsuperdan]

15 hours ago, Rodent said:

Thanks Dans. Yes, I have a few nearby stores that sell g-strings. What size is the one in the pic? ?

Dan C's example that would look pretty good mounted on a round bead on top of a flat round base for my use. The coil isn't quite long enough, but I think it would look better than plastic.

 

I honestly have no idea which size that is. Probably a G or an A.

As it came off a new string, you can cut the coiled base to whatever size you want. There's literally about 30 inches of string to utilize!

4 hours ago, Danno said:

With all due respect, Dan (Clark), that solution doesn't replicate the real thing. You'll notice the guitar string coil is a straight coil while the actual antenna has a diamond-like shape. That's why I utilize the plastic part from kits for the coil . . . more realistic. I'll photo up a couple of examples later.

Here's one image of the real deal to illustrate what I mean. 

 

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Well....it kinda does.

I've seen both.

 

 

On a police car from the 50s, it probably does have that shape that bulges in the middle.

For me, in 1/25 scale, the difference would be so negligible that it wouldn't bother me. To each their own. 

[Mike999]

Here's how I did it, on a diecast kit of the very car in your photo: the Model 68 '55 Buick built only for the California Highway Patrol. 

I found the diamond-shaped antenna base in the parts stash and made the hold-down clip on the rain gutter from a tiny piece of photo-etch metal scrap. I drilled thru the antenna base and added an antenna made of stretched sprue. That let me add the "ball" on the end, by simply heating the sprue. The antenna is painted with Molotow Liquid Chrome.  I also added the rubber boot at the base of the antenna, but don't remember where that came from.

[Rodent]

Looks nice Mike. Also on my to-do list is to paint the wheels like yours are.

[Danno]

21 hours ago, Mike999 said:

Here's how I did it, on a diecast kit of the very car in your photo: the Model 68 '55 Buick built only for the California Highway Patrol. 

I found the diamond-shaped antenna base in the parts stash and made the hold-down clip on the rain gutter from a tiny piece of photo-etch metal scrap. I drilled thru the antenna base and added an antenna made of stretched sprue. That let me add the "ball" on the end, by simply heating the sprue. The antenna is painted with Molotow Liquid Chrome.  I also added the rubber boot at the base of the antenna, but don't remember where that came from.

Bingo!  Good job, Mike. Very good job.

Stretching sprue is another way to get a scale-dimension mast, but way more fiddly work than I'm up for, so the guitar string does the trick for me.

 

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