Best Technique for Weathering Sails?

yeah you can use the orgianals as molds. all you do it wrinkle or soften the paper you are going to use, get it wet and put if over the original then coat it with a watered down glue to help it keep it's form.

for weathering plastic sails i just used regular tan acyrlic paint, it goes on pretty thin and gives the sail a dirty look to it.

Bernie,

I use a tannish colored tissue paper to start with.  I either role it tightly to use as furled sails or I do what Enemeink recommended. Either way, the results are very nice; it looks more like weathered canvas than the plastic sails.  How is the model coming? And, I hope you got the Jolly Roger.

Bill Morrison

For paint, and on plastic, I've like using a combination of Radome Tan and Unbleached Linen.

For paper, I've almost always used high-rag content resume paper in a pale ecru/beige sort of look (about like Unbleached Linen).

    I have achieved excellent results using silkspan, a tissue like fabric that is strong, which is purchased from BlueJacket Ship Crafters. Before the sails are cut, the silkspan material is soaked in coffee over night, then dried. The results are a light tan effect that resembles actual sails.

                Montani semper liberi !   Happy modeling to all and every one of you.

                                        Crackers            

Crackers,

What ship is that? It's beautiful!

Bill

Cap'nMac,

I would like to hear more about your resume paper technique!

Bill

Enemeink,

Which kit of the Victory is that?  You did a nice job!

Bill

In my presentation of building Revell's Santa Maria You can find other technique for making cloth sails:

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The simplest treatment for vacuformed sails is to spray them with Testors Dullcoat.  But this looks best for US ships, many of which used whiter sails than most European ships.  For European ships, flat tan, like someone else suggested, or "desert sand" is more appropriate.  Reefing threads can be easily added to vacuformed sails.

You could also use diluted "iced tea" to wet the paper with...

Ray

warshipguy

Enemeink,

Which kit of the Victory is that?  You did a nice job!

Bill

It's a Revell Germany 1/225. it was my first build.

Don Stauffer

The simplest treatment for vacuformed sails is to spray them with Testors Dullcoat.  But this looks best for US ships, many of which used whiter sails than most European ships. 

Becouse only US ships was with cotton sails. European ships does'nt use cotton as cloth for sails.

I can recommend for You, if You still wish make sails from kit, i.e. not cloth sails, Humbrol enamel paint Nr. 103, which is usual used only for sails.

Enemeink,

Impressive!

Bill

warshipguy

Cap'nMac,

I would like to hear more about your resume paper technique!

Bill

Ok, I had tried actual cloth, sewing seams and the like, adding doubling, the whole bit--just not practical much below 1/32 or so--and the scale factor works against you too.

I tried my "flag" technique, which is to use silkscreen fabric--which is very spiffy for flags, especially using dye-sublimation printers--but the silk is too fine for sails.  It's floppy, and pretty expensive, too.

For in the 1/80 to 1/120 range, I'd tried newsprint, crumpled and wetted and allowed to dry to form.  This was good, but looked too much like a single sheet of oatmeal.

Enter felicity.  Some wet towels and some 100% linen rag paper comingled.  When dry, the linen texture was still there, and the paper had not lost its "vellum like" look, either.  Neat.

Even better, you can scribe details, like seams using colored pencil.  Spray starch will help hold a curve (and will coerce fine thread reef points to lay down, too).  Under 1/100 or so, you can use a printer and a sepia or gray tone to print details on the paper.  Going up from 1/96, you can use a strip cutter and glue doublings, reef bands, the like on the sails.

A dab of woolite and water seems to help the sheets as you get in the 1/48 -1/16 range (other problem being in sails that fir the sheet size).  Doubling and bands glue--they want a pounce wheel to show stitching, but the thickness is so very nice.

Cap'n'Mac,

That is an interesting idea.  I will consider it for my build of Constructo's HMS Pandora, which a neighbor sold to me for $75.00 (the kit is missing the sails)

Bill