How do you create roof top on a vehicle?

A popular method of making canvas tops, tonneaus, or whatever is to use a sheet of Kleenex, and saturate it (carefully) with thinned white glue- mix half and half with water.

Don, do you have any pics of the results of said technique you can post?  I have a project I am working on that will require a canvas covering.  I am curious what your technique produces.

I too do not have an idea of how I am going to go about it.

Thanks

I don't at the moment.  Last time I did it was several years ago.  Some of my friends have done so more recently but I have no photos of their models.  I suggest you make a simple square frame from scrap strips (wood, metal or plastic) and test the technique.

In fact, it is a good rule any time  you are trying a new technique you are not familiar with to test the technique (or new material) with a simplified test piece.  Kleenex and white glue are cheap, so testing the technique won't cost you much .

I use spectacle cleaning cloths as the weave is tighter , and they . to use them crumple up and leave to dry out then open out and glue to your frame . . You can paint them direct no need for dilute water based glue . As per previous posting try out first .

Hello!

For a hard top you best use sheet polystyrene - you can buy it or scrounge it. Popular sources are signs printed on it, or food packaging. There are many more you just have to be careful and look around you. Stretched sprue is also a good material to simulate tubing etc.

For a rag top I would like to suggest a material i developed - called pawelite. It consists of aluminium foil glued between two layers of tissue. Spray glue is best to use here. Pawelite takes paint well, and also holds all of the folds and creases nicely. Let me show you two examples where I used it:

Hope it helps - good luck with your projects and have a nice day

Paweł

"For a hard top you best use sheet polystyrene"

Is this another word for styrofoam since that's what it came out when I google it? Thanks.

Hello!

No, I meant something more like this:

www.hobbylinc.com/sheets-plain-model-scratch-building-plastic-sheets-rods-tubes-strips

Hope it helps, good luck with your projects and have  a nice day

Paweł

No, it's the stuff models are made of but in sheet form. Google Evergreen styrene sheets.

edit; Pawel beat me to it! ; )

Pawel, I've seen a version of powelite before except it was called HolyCrapThisMightJustWorkLite, then.  I experimented with something similar a while back. I used those blue paper towels you find at gas stations, you know the ones by the pumps for your windshield.  The layers are like my coffee,  smooth and strong..

Anyway... I never did use it for anything other than to experiment.  It is good to see someone actually perfected it and put it to use.  Great build pics.  I am going to give your powelite a go.  thank you for posting it.

You can also carve a top from wood.  Before about 1950 scale models were usually made from wood.  Wood is still a very good material for scratch building and for making mods and conversions.  One advantage we have working with wood today- when you are carving the insides and the part is getting too thin, wiping regular CA glue into the wood really strengthens thin sections!

Echo139er - good to hear from you and thanks for your kind words!

Don - if you are going to reinforce material with CA, you might also go for cardboard, soak it ith CA and sand to shape - that would work too, and you can get cardboard even easier than wood.

Have a nice day

Paweł

Yes, but cardboard is a bit stiff if the top has a compound curve, like most car and truck tops.  If you get it wet enough- soaking it- you can sometimes mold it into a compound curve.  But to do that, you need to carve a mold/pattern anyway, so might just work the top itself anyway.

Hmmm , Pawelite ?

   Are you going to market the stuff and how big are the sheets ? Neat idea , Pawel .

Pawel,

That's a fantastic idea, however I don't have any problems with the old method, but I think you have something there.

Here's an example of my tissue and glue tarp

modelcrazy - you sure have the hang of that technique, those tarps look very nice! Thanks for sharing and have a nice day

Paweł

BTW, Pawel, forgot to comment on your idea.  That looks great!  I am going to try it.

Hello Don - thanks a lot an I'm curious how it is going to work for you! Good luck with your projects and have a nice day

Paweł

For this top, i used tissue and plastic rods. it's intentionally poor looking (to match the real Toyota)

For this roof, i cut a piece of flat styrene, then covered it with automotive filler

Okay Pawel !

You are the man .Your Pawelite coverings are working out great in 1/350 . Except for the domes over the medium guns I now have a ship in mothballs . (Temporary ) Thank You for the info on this stuff . Why don't you market it ? I would buy probably at least ten packs of Normal paper sized sheets .    T.B.

Is that a red 1985 Suzuki Samurai ?

tankerbuilder

Is that a red 1985 Suzuki Samurai ?

i couldn't find a Samurai, so i used a 1/24 Suzuki Jimny  Softtop instead, and built my own roof. it's by Fujimi

Gees ! ! What a fun vehicle .

   I broke it in Death valley four or five times . It just kept coming back for more ! The canvas top was flapping in the breeze on the freeway , Ripped off and blew across the lanes . Oh , well , I've always liked convertibles anyway .

      Nice part .No Computers ! Easy to work on ,  just gotta find the part .

For hard tops, smaller ones can be made with a Mattel vacu-form or one of the new ones sold by Micro Mark.  You need to carve a wood pattern, then form sheet styrene over the pattern.