How would i make some scale canvas for a 1/35 tent?
Ive seen paper towel dipped in white glue and water mixes but it was on some large 1:20 scale freight trucks and im not sure the effect would be convincing in 1:35.
Any ideas anybody?

Thx
-Charles

Same technique, just use kleenex type facial tissue. Make sure you don't use toilet paper though, it will fall apart when wet. Also, get tissue that does not have any type of quilting or other pattern on it. Once painted, it will look great.

You know I was just thinking about this the other day when going through my stock of styrene. I have some very thin sheets from a variety pack I got some time ago on clearance. I have no idea what the thickness is, but it is very thin about as thick as regular paper. Anywho the idea was to build a roll bar frame for say a jeep and then weld on sheets of this thin styrene (not too sure it would not just eat right through it though) then with a hair dryer or heat gun slowly and carefully heat the thin parts. I guess is that with a steady hand and watch full eye you could get the thin parts to wrinkle like fabric while the A frame (roll bars) would not have been heated enough to change the shape. Keep in mind this is a theory and I have not tested it. Actually I dont really need this so far and I doubt Ill try it anytime soon. If you do try it let us know if it works out!

As for other methods I have had good results with tissue, paper, etc.Harden it with several coats of watered down pva glue (or my new favorite is ammonia based window cleaner instead of water and soap). Just dont try actual fabric unless you have some very thin stuff on hand, it just does not look right in scale. Good luck!

Thanks guys. unfortunately i dont have any plasticard that thin. Sounds like a great technique if it works though. I was also trying to keep the cost down to $0
Cuz the less i spend on things like that, the more i can spend when it comes to kits. haha

I like Doug's idea! A guy in my LHS mentioned that he had done similar things with a product called "monocote" or "monokote" which is what they use on wings of R/C airplanes. He got the edges right and then shrunk it with a hair dryer, and said it was very realistic. I haven't seen one of these done but from some of his other work I've seen I would believe him.

IIRC he used it on a Duece and a half for the canvas across the bed.

I do think Gino's idea is probably the best being low cost and materials easy to come by as well as being used by many modellers.

I know the stuff you are talking about. It works kind of like shrink tube for electric wire. If you are going for inexpensive the tissue will work. My only concern about the styrene / monocote is that it wont have any texture to it. Perhaps a combination of the two ideas would yield the best results of strength and texture. This is of course for areas of a model where more strength would be needed. If you had an area to be tarped that was solid (or nearly solid) I dont know if the styrene would be necessary.

Paper towel is much too heavy to represent scale canvas. Tissue paper of the type used to pack shirts is the best, rather than facial tissue or toilet paper (which is designed to dissolve in water). Crumple the tissue paper up into a ball and flatten it again to break up the longer fibres, and drape it in position. Then brush on a coating of white glue thinned with water to help it drape and to harden the tissue. When dry, paint with enamel or acrylics.

I bought this
50 SHEETS **ACID FREE WHITE TISSUE PAPER
for £0.99 from ebay.
It's the same stuff mentioned for packing shirts and there is enough to last several lifetimes !!

Tony

why not look at these two features, havent tried them but look great.


http://www.armorama.co.uk//features/289

http://www.armorama.co.uk//features/1001