Ok.. I have been brain storming, and even this post may be a bit premature, but, just to see if anyone else has considered this, I will post anyway, even tho I have no pictures yet, but only a "proof of concept". I have tried to make tarps for covered loads on flatbeds, gondolas, pallets, and other shipping containers, or anything that might require a tarp. It is very difficult to emulate this in N scale, because there just is not many materials that will look right, and drape naturally in the smaller scales in my humble opinion. I have always been sort of unconventional in methods, and techniques. I like to experiment. Some work, most dont, but damn, it's fun.. lol.. Thinking out of the box, I came up with a technique, that seems to want to work. I got the idea from a pretty unconventional way. Thinking back to my rebelious youth, and means of revenge in the good ol days. TPing a foes home. I liked to wait for my revenge for a night of forcasted rain, then TP the foes home. Doing so, created a much more empressive mess of wet toilet paper hanging on the house and trees. A mess to clean up.. As right or wrong this was, it is what gave me this idea for N scale tarps. Wet toilet paper is very fragile, and mallable, and will pretty much take any form you drape it over. Technique: Take one ply of 2 ply TP. Cut into correct scale sized squares or rectangles to size the tarp. Lay square over load you wish tarped. Mist TP with water. The TP will naturally drape very scale and realistically over whatever you have it on, taking it's shape in a very natural way. With a paint brush, or ginger touch, position the TP with creases, and wrinkles to taste, removing air pockets. With an exacto, or paint brush, carefully lift the edges so they hang naturally, and not cling (careful, because a single ply wet TP is very fragile). Let dry completly over night. When completly dry, you will be amazed already how much this looks like a very naturally draping tarp. Carefully, seal your fragile tarp with a clear coat, or tan, green, blue (all depending on the color of tarp you are planning). The point is to color it, without tearing it up, and also making it more rigid and durable, and preserving it's shape. Once it is sealed, paint and weather to taste. Chain, or strap your load down. To make the tarp react to the straps or chain naturally and realistically, you may need to dampen the tarp slightly, without making it too delicate. I have done some experimentation with this, with some suprizingly realistic results. Unfortunatly, I was not thinking far enough ahead to take pictures. But, am making one now that I will be taking some pictures of. Has anyone else done this with tarped loads? How were your results?
My solution has been to use Testors white decal paper and lots of Micro Sol. It's not exactly N scale tarps but I used this method for sheets covering HO patients in a Hospital bed and it worked well.
I think I read about the use of TP in a German forum. So you might be on the right track... But I haven't tried it myself, so it is also speculation from my side. P.S.: the best loads I have seen so far are those by the Hay Bros.. They have realistic tarps, but I don't know how the do it.
Using TP to tarp a load. There is irony in there somewhere...LOL I do like the possiblity of doing it that way. I may have to give it a go...thnxs .
Good idea! I have used Kleenex tisues, soaked in a water/white glue mixture, then draped over the item. Paint the dried tissue afterwards. Looks good. What do you think? :thumbs_down: OR :thumbs_up:
That looks great.. same concept.. What you came up with is what I have also with TP.. That looks great.. I also want to mist the 1st misting with glue/water mix too... Now I will seeing how yours came out..
Are tarps even used anymore? I haven't seen any recently. Seems to me the tarp would be an issue in and of itself. Who pays for it and is it returned to the shipper or is it disposable? Now I have seen loads wrapped in plastic such as lumber and even that shrink wrap stuff. But I think tie down tarps are a thing of the past especially with the intermodal containers we have today.
just throwing something out there, what about something like a plaster cloth? wet it down lay it over your load smooth it out, let dry. not as fragile.
I used a very fine weave fabric stretched over the tarp bows. I glued one side and let it set, then stretched it to the other side, glued it down and trimmed it. I used Polly Scale silver paint to finish it. I would think that this might work on larger tarps. Dave G
Dave, your tarp looks great too, for some cases, especially what you have it for, as a truck load tarp. Those tend to be made of a heavier weight canvas. The tarps I am trying to mimic are the thinner, cheaper tarps used to cover up loads. In alot of cases, those tarps are tattered pretty good when they reach the destination, and in many cases, "Disposable" after a couple uses. These types of tarps don't have near the heft, and structure of one used for a more permanant tractor trailer hopper cover or something like that. So, yes, your tarp looks great for it's purpose, but other purposes, it may be too bulky and not have the "draping" effect I like to see on large thinner, shipping tarps. As far as a paper tower, especially bounty, I think it would be the same, being too bulky and still not flow, and drape like TP, or tissue paper. Plaster cloth, way too thick and stiff for this effect. Carl, both yours look great and have that "Effect" I am talking about, and what I have discovered with TP. "Tarping A Load" with TP.. hehheh... I didn't let that go by either.. lol
You guys could also try drop cloths that you can get from your local hardware stores. I've seen 2mm thick sould work ok.
How about the thin tissue that comes with shirts and stuff? It also comes in colors. I think it is also used as filler in those nifty gift bags. Just a thought.
Carl very nice looking tarp..I got to try that....I have been thinking about modeling a Circus tent I wonder if it would work for that?...Jerry
that type tissue might work out well too.. Never tried that stuff.. The good thing is, it might be not as delicate to work with wet as TP is, as long as it will drape freely as the TP tissue does.. The plastic grocery bag is not a bad idea ither, but, it also is stiffer (to scale) then a real tarp would be, and to get the loose "Drape" effect, would be tough, and not come naturally to it.. The TP thing does this, mainly because it doesnt have alot of "structure" to it, and is goes almost to a liquid state when it is wet, giving it that "free" and natural hang to it as it would in scale with the mini world. Its kind like those studies they do with scale ships, and water flow. They use scaled down ships in water tanks to test hydrodynamics, and boyancy, which to me, is just stupid, and really cant be done realistically. Maybe it is just the physics junkie in me from college, but, on a molicular level you can not scale down the molicules of water to the same scale as the ship you are testing, so the water will NOT react like water on a 1:1 scale ship. To scale, the water molicules would be gigantic, therefore reacting differently on a molicular level. I just cringe when I see those tests, and until they are able to scale down the molicules of water to be in scale with the model ship, it wont work the same as a full scale. That is the problem I have in N scale stuff I tinker with. i want it to act as tho it would, if I were that small too. If I take a sheet of plastic or paper even, even if the thickness is near correct, and laid it over a car, and to scale the paper or plastic would be 50 foot long by 20 foot wide, would it levitate and stick straight out like it does? Or would it fall and drape over the edges? Just sayin.. :tb-err:
