how to replicate canvas

Hi Leo

My preference would be painted tissue. It is plyable and very easy to work with.

Best of luck with the cover.

Bill

Bill,

Thanks for the quick reply. Do you mean the stuff you blow your nose with? How do you seal, paint it & get it to conform to the shape required?

Cheers Leo

Leo,

Perhaps not facial tissues (eg Kleenex) but tissue paper for gift wrapping - The stuff you often find wadded up and stuffed into new shoes works pretty well. Just paint it with a flat paint.

I used tissue paper (like Kleenex) soaked in some white glue, dilluetd with water, colourd with acrylic paint.

Thanks guys,

I will try different mediums, and see which one works best.

Thanks again

Leo

I've used THIS METHOD and it works real well.

Kleenex, white glue, and water.

Aluminium foil works for me.  It retains wrinkles and texture and is cheap.

I prefer airplane tissue...."jap tissue" as it is sometimes called. It is easy to cut, can hold a fold, but once wet can wrinkle nicely. Usaully you can get a sheet at the hobby shop for around $1 which will last forever. Some landscape cement of watered down PVA and you are all set. 

With airplane tissue you never have to worry about fuzzing or ripping while wet and especially that major problem of using a tissue that has already been used .

Rounds Complete!!

Hello Leo

Yes I actually use they type of tissue for your nose. Don't use the scented or cream type... just plain old kleenex (white not colored).

My method is to take a full sheet and lay it out on an oversized piece of foil. I liberally paint it with acrylics in the color I want the cover / tarp(s) to be. Thin your paint so it flows all over the tissue without ripping it.  After you paint you will need to hang it up to dry. I use the same foil as a "drop cloth" in case there are any drips. I use an alligator clip (or something similar) and clip each end and hang it above the drop cloth. Give it enough time to dry. Once dry you can cut it, fold it, mold it, etc. It becomes very sturdy at this point.     Use some thinned white glue to get it into the shape you require, and let dry again. You can then add highlights, lowlights, dry brush.

Hope this helps.

Another approach: I use plain white copier paper, with or without PVA glue treatment!

Copier paper is more robust than tissue, and has a much tighter fibre and grain - so does not suffer as much frizzies as tissue, while having a more in-scale surface tecure from the git-go.

Depending on the texture you want...

A "canvas" with a dull cloth finish is readily achieved by wetting the paper with water, followed by brushing the damp paper liberally with acrylic paint of your choice, hang to semi-dry and form onto your racks, surface, etc., or roll and fold just like a tent or tarp.

A "tilt" or other "oil-cloth" or rubberized fabric can be created by wetting the paper with dilute PVA (white glue), let semi-dry, and either follow up with acryl paints and then fold or fit to surface, or fit to the surface first and then let dry and paint with any paint you want.  The PVA will seal the surface of the paper and actuully (when painted over with acryls when still damp) yield a satiny sheen that looks nicely like oil cloth.  Similarly, when painted over after it is dry, enamels (such as Testors ModelMaster) will yield a slight satin hardness or sheen.

IF I can figure out how to post a pic here... I'll post one tonite of a recent project (Horch 1A) where I scratched a folded and rolled "rag-top -on- frame" and some cloth frames for the "celluloid" "soft" side windows used on these cars. Both items used the "oil-cloth" model with PVA soaking.

Bob

I recommend against using facial tissue (Kleenex) because the final product has too much texture.  In 1/35, very visible texture is just not to scale, IMHO.  I go with aluminum foil.  But I'll try out the copying paper -- that sounds interesting.

That is good thinking too Bob.

While I have never had any tissue issues with fraying or frizzing, it is always nice to have options.

Here is a pic of one of my tissue tarps. Once they are painted they become very strong (for modeling of course).

I use facial tissue and thinned white glue, too.

I, too, have had great luck with tissue and white glue.  I did the folded top of a SdKfz 7 many, many years ago, and was very pleased with the outcome.  I have had no issues with fruzzing.  I took the folded top kit assembly and loosely-wrapped it with some tissue.  I then coated it with some thinned white glue.  I used the brush to assist with making folds and wrinkles where I wanted, and to flatten them out against the plastic assembly as needed for effect.  After that was dry, I painted it with regular enamel.  It looked pretty real to me. 

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

Thanks for all the great advise. I'm going to try pretty much all the different types of paper stated on this forum.

I'm close to completing the leopard and will post pics soon, so you will be able to tell me how the canvas turned out.

Cheers

Leo

Hi , I am somewhat new to this genre. I normally do ships in larger scales . When I need canvas I use NON-PATTERNED BOUNTY paper towels.WHY ? well , I bet most folks didn,t know it,s two ply . When you get one damp you can seperate the plys .Then take the ply ,cut to shape and soak in white glue , THEN , BEFORE mounting squeeze most of the glue and water mix out of it (You do have to thin the white glue a lot) When you mount it and stretch it a little it keeps the wrinkles and then stretches at the tight points and when dry looks just the real thing, with stretch wrinkles and nice sags.         tankerbuilder