Scratchbuilt railing canvas?

[Plasma_Frigate]

During my 1/400 scale Aurora project (to be completed as the museum ship she appears as today, vis a vis the Aurora at the beginning of the 1917 October Revolution), I noticed doing research that all of her upper deck railings are covered in canvas during the colder months, and the rest of the year they are without canvas (see pics).

I don't think the designers took this into account producing this model, as all of the upper deck and bridge pieces are moulded with plastic sides, meant to depict canvas, but the crows nests are both bare and I'm insructed to rail them with the supplied photoetch. This is not realistic at all because the crows nest railings are always draped in canvas while the rest of the upper deck is (for the colder months, as previously explained).

Aurora was in her "canvas" state during the October Revolution and this is how I want to proceed. For the crows nest, I tried to scratchbuild a semicircular strip from leftover plastic sprue, but it fell apart for being too thin and fragile. I need the canvas railing to look exactly like the rest of them that are in the model. It's very basic, simply a thin circular strip, to be glued on a circular platform. I need two of them, for rear and fore crowsnests.

Any common household materials I could use to make these? Tried using thin cardboard and sandboard but it won't fold and hold to the right shape of the crowsnest platform.

[InchHigh]

Have you tried paper? I have had good luck with paper soaked in superglue. It can be rolled or folded into a variety of shapes.

[Rick_H]

I use white glue. When stretched between the rails, it dries with a convex shape which looks very realistic to me.

Then I paint the outboard sides of the "canvas" and leave the painted PE on the inboard side, showing the inside of the canvas.
Rick

[drasticplastic]

To add to what Rick just said, paint the PE rails the appropriate color on both sides, then color the white glue with any acrylic paint - white, or off-white (cheapo arts/crafts will do) and apply it from the outside side of the railings. When dry, the canvass dodgers will be the right color, the visible parts of the railings on the inside will be the right color, and further painting will not be necessary.

[Jabberwock]

Try cigarette rolling papers, one pack will last a lifetime! Also useful for canvas lifeboat covers.

Cheers, Jabb

[JIM BAUMANN]

Nice to see you online again here Jabberwock !

ref the white glue method
indeed paint the rails both sides- when the white glue is dry --paint the outside only
==> white glue dries clear-- hence one can then see the demarcation of railing against dodger

to illustrate it here a few examples from 1/700 models of mine

[Timmy C]

Drasticplastic's idea of mixing the paint colour right into the white glue before application is a great idea for those of us who use acrylic/water-based paints, while Jim's original idea of painting the glue after it's dry works best with enamels/oil-based paints. Trying to paint the thin dried glue with waterbased paints can result in the film dissolving, in my experience!

[Plasma_Frigate]

Thank you all for these instructions! I already went with InchHigh's suggestion to use paper strips soaked in superglue and folded it to shape. That turned out quite well, and they look identical to the plastic moulded canvas already on some of my painted model.


JIM those models look so amazing and inspire me to make a diorama with water features like those. I will try the white glue method on my next ship for sure. Now, by 'white glue' do you all mean 'PVA glue'? As this glue is white and common in hobby and craft stores.

[drasticplastic]

Also called "Elmer's Glue", and "School Glue".

[Aggie]

Another option is Alliance Model Works' 'canvas dodger':

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/allianc ... ng--533578