SPA Modeler

Thanks so much, Carlos. I was going to ask our armor builders (tank men?) about how to make a fabric cover for the interior of the spats. I agree with you about the photos! So many great photos do help to fix time and place, too, as you wrote above. I found a nice in flight photo:



Here you can really see how far the aircraft sinks down on its wheels when it is on the ground. Also here and in the other photos we see the wear and tear and the dirt patterns, and I plan to replicate those features as best I can.

Bruce,

I have been having some great success using champagne foil for fabric. I use the kind that comes on the mini bottles of Cook’s that my wife is always slugging back. Perfectly malleable, smooths out well too, and I haven’t had any problems with it taking primer and paint yet. That said, it’s still rather delicate, so as you say- caveet emperor on that. But you got a light, mindful touch and I can’t imagine it’s give you any hassles.

Thank you so much, Ken. I’m still marveling at your latest interior finish—flat coat and move on!—but I am going to consider your idea. That’s a good one. My thought was to texture the thinnest styrene card available. Not sure yet which way to jump.

Thank you again, Bruce!

As to styrene- you give me an idea. You could texture it and then heat it with the hairdryer method and form it into the shape you desire? I bet you probably could. And what’s awesome about the styrene option over the foil is it’s more durable. Oh and plus! You can affix it to the model with solvents as opposed to CA (and you know I prefer that). No question whatsoever about priming and painting either- the material is literally “the devil we all know.” And maybe that’s better— use plastic any and every time you can get away with it.... hmmm ... Imma be noodling this here too now that you’ve mentioned it.

speedgraflex wrote:Thanks so much, Carlos. I was going to ask our armor builders (tank men?) about how to make a fabric cover for the interior of the spats. I agree with you about the photos! So many great photos do help to fix time and place, too, as you wrote above. I found a nice in flight photo:



Here you can really see how far the aircraft sinks down on its wheels when it is on the ground. Also here and in the other photos we see the wear and tear and the dirt patterns, and I plan to replicate those features as best I can.

I’d say use some tissue, not facial or toilet tissue, but the stuff you use in gift boxes or bags, coated with diluted white glue. Cut it to shape, then brush on the diluted glue and allow that to dry. Simple, effective, and quite true to scale.

Thanks, Carlos! I will try this idea as well! Much obliged.

Bruce, what a fantastic thread to follow. I also love doing prep work. In fact; whenever I open a kit to start building, the first thing I do is connect both halves of everything that is molded in two parts, especially wheels. That way I don't have to worry about them later, and I can even get them painted long before I need to paint them.

I was also going to suggest the tissue paper technique that Carlos gave. It even works in 1/72 scale.

Duke! Duke! Duke!

Thank you so much for your advice.

My pleasure Bruce. Always thrilled to help a friend.