Tarps for Armor?

Tissue soaked in diluted White (elmers type) glue works........

Ditto...

The tissue paper I use is the stuff you get in clothing boxes. You can also pick some up at most hobby stores and you'll have more than you ever need.

PS: Welcome to the forums

Either one of the papers described on the other post. Be sure and drape the "tarp" over the object you are wanting to cover and let the glue dry. Then paint and weather. Good luck, and welcome to the forums.

Dentists use thin lead foil when they xray your teeth. I got a lifetimes supply from mine when I asked and they are great for making tarps! Just drape them over the items or surface you wish it to be placed over and gently mould it down with your fingers. Take the foil off, trim to shape and carefully paint/drybrush. The results look pretty good!

cheers

Mike

As per the above posts, I usually use tissue paper. I take the desired colour, and mix it with white school glue, then use that to directly paint the tissue, and wrap it onto whatever it is that I'm doing. It will dry hard and solid, and looks great. If you find that the paint didn't cover too well when dry, you can simply apply another layer of paint.

If a ship modeler may be forgiven for intruding - it sounds like a trick for making furled sails might work just as well for this purpose. The trick I use is similar to what's been discussed already, but with one small variation. I like to start with "silkspan" type tissue; the thinnest I've found is sold as lens tissue in photography stores. I tape a piece of it to a frame made of balsa wood and paint it with a mixture of Polyscale acrylic paint and white glue, dilluted considerably with water. (The exact proportions don't seem to matter much.) When the resulting mess is dry I cut it to shape, then touch it with a water-dampened brush. Remarkably enough, the water softens up the glue but doesn't make the paint run. The tissue assumes the consistency of a piece of rubber, and can be formed into whatever shape you like. Then when it dries it's remarkably stiff and durable.

I've got a couple of models with sails on them that I made that way twenty years ago, and they've held up fine.

My vote for the best tarp material is facial tissue. You can get the top brand ( Kleenex ) pretty cheaply. These facial tissues work better than other types because they won't fall apart when dipped in the water/glue solution. You can also make bedrolls, pup tents, G.I. ponchos, etc. with this material. When it has become mostly dried ( still tacky to the touch ) take a piece of cloth with a high thread count ( 100 threads per inch if possible ) and press it lightly on the tissue/tarp to give it a proper texture. That goes for the bedrolls, tents, tank manlet covers, etc. " Slick " surfaced tarpaulins just don't look right. I have an old model building book that shows turpintine being used instead of water/glue solution. I would hope that would be de-scented turp. Get one of Shep Paine's books on building diaoramas. Kalmbach Books is the publisher. ( the folks who publish FSM ) Paine's books are about the best there are on the subject.
WELCOME TO THE FORUM!!!

Hmmm, sounds like just the advice I need to winterproof joints on some robot models.

Well I may be way off here but having not gotten advice from anyone on how to make them, I went out to the local craft shop and bough some of the material they had there. The best way I can describe it is something that looks like canvas that you paint on but thinner. I put it through the washer and dryer with some other clothes a few times to try to make it a little more threadbare. Then I just painted it and tied it around the gunbarrel. I went for the sandbag look and it turned out pretty good.