WW1 Aircraft Modeling > WW1 Aircraft Dioramas

Making Tarps

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Lyle:
I came across this method by a lot of trial and error and will probably find out there's a better way to do this, but for my needs, this worked perfectly.  The idea for a tarped aircraft came from a great photo of Jasta 35 loading and unloading Fokker D.VIIs and Pfalz D.XIIs from rail cars after an airfield move. 

From what I gather, rail transport was the standard modus operandi for the Germans, with all personnel on the train, so everybody showed up at the same time as the planes.

When the order came thru for a move, the planes were duly disassembled, packed up and tied down, and tarps covered everything that might attract dust and grime from the rail trip. 

I chose a khaki-like color dulled down with grey--I understand now tarps might have been in feldgrau as well!  The tissue is ordinary 2-ply which will make for a good scale thickness for most any model when you seperate the sheets AFTER painting.  As it is, it's pretty frail until the paint dries.  Here is the start:

Lyle:
Here are my acrylics, probably available anywhere arts and crafts are sold.  I mixed them at a ratio of 1:1.




Let the painting begin!  The tissue tends to bunch up and really wrinkle when wet.  Be sure to get a tissue with no pattern on it!




After you get your paint on, seperate the sheets and pull them apart.  This is very tricky and can result in lots of tears and rips, as happened to me.




Hanging the laundry out to dry! You can actually get two useable sheets if you put enough paint down for it to soak thru and you're careful when seperating the sheets.

Lyle:
Here is the photo that got me interested in doing this:

GAJouette:
   Lyle,
Thanks for the tarp making technique my friend.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

Lyle:
After your sheet is dry, cut it to the size needed for your dio.  Since this was a demo, I just cut a suitable rectangle of material, rather than try to measure something that is scale.  Use a very sharp blade for cutting, of course.  Unpainted tissue prefers to tear rather than cut, but with the acrylic, it responds very nicely.




To get the "fabric" to conform to your model, re-wet the tissue and apply it.  The color doesn't soften and run and can be done and redone as often as needed to get it to look right




Although the paint doesn't run, the tissue becomes fragile again, so be careful when adjusting it on your model.  Any protuberance will snag the tissue!  I know...the Kingstrom handles on my Pfalz's Spandaus were a convenient place to hang up!




Here is the tarp dry and settled in.




A coat of thinned white glue after it's all done will ensure it stays in place.  The nice thing about white glue is that you can re-wet it and move it around just as much as before.  You can add ropes, grommets, whatever to the tissue because that paint really imparts a lot of strength.  I hope this has been of some help and comments are always welcome, keep on modeling guys!

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