RC Sherman

What works best for a good 1/16 scale-looking rope and a tarp cover?

Starting to look forward to some stowage on the rear of my m4a3 and will want to use a tarp and some tie-down rope on the rear shelf.

What have you used for rope, and a natural looking tarp?

Thanks.

Green Amphibian

I have used different sizes of fishing line for rope. It does not fray very much, easy to get, looks the part too. For tarps I have used a lot of things, but the best so far is tissue paper with white glue on it. For camouflage netting I use gauze folded into the shape I want and painted.

Herman

TheBennyB

Being a Chef I've used butchers twine that is unwound into single threads for rope. Cheese cloth for netting though build-a-rama has some decent stuff that I've used as well.
http://www.build-a-rama.com/1_18/net...16_OD_18.shtml

DaveBcool

I used cheese cloth and scale rigging rope for tall ships, found at my LHS.

Max-U52

There's a guy right here on the forum that makes the very best rope I've seen yet. I'll try to get some photos. He just sent me a couple of coils and it's pretty impressive. One good trick for coloring white string into rope is to soak it in coffee. I'll see about those photos.

Max-U52

Here's a couple. I know he sells them at very reasonable prices.

LarryE519

thats nice looking stuff, who has it?

afv aficionado

Hi
Tea bag string is good, both scale wise & flexible.

Mal

Airbrushler

i use this canvas material that was a backing for perf material we print on at work and some string on my bruder truck

RC Sherman

All great stuff guys.. thanks.

Airbrushler

where are you located i will send some of the material to you

Max-U52

Greg that looks really great. Did you put the grommets in? One of the projects on my to-do list is a GP Medium tent. The plan is to hit Hobby Lobby for some of those flour sack towels and see if they'll work. I've pretty much got it planned out, now I just have to execute. A GP Medium in 1/16 is 1 foot by 2 feet, and then I'll add a base so I can put in the ropes and pegs. That was pretty considerate of the army to make the GP Medium tent 16' x 32'. Converts really well for us. And Mal's teabag string tip might work well for, what do they call them? Guy ropes? You know, the ropes all down the sides. The ones that help keep it from falling down.

Airbrushler

ya the grommets are a bit too big but it was all i had

YHR

I have a tutorial on my web page for making identification banners. It is a boring video, Literally watching paint dry,. However the concept would work well for tarps. Once you got the tarp built, you would place it over the objects to be covered and give it a couple of shots of Windex. The "paint" tarp would then drape over the items in a very realistic way.

Here is a link to the tutorial

You can see in the example of the Russian flag on the back of a T-34. This is an example of how the tarp would drape if this technique was used.


http://battlearmorrc.weebly.com/air-...on-panels.html

Man I need to go back and edit out 75% of that video

edoubleaz

My Feedback: (1)

Try Michaels for a cheap tow cable solution. They offer a few braided rope necklaces for beading. One style comes in black and if you make a shallow hole in most tow brackets you can super glue it in and it looks great. A little weathering and boom.

YHR

Also from Micheals you can buy candle wick rope that has a small wire in it. I have used this on many occasions.

MAUS45

For scale rope I have used this twine from Hobby Lobby.

http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/...-twine-678276/

ausf

For rope: ship model suppliers. Best stuff you'll ever see. I had one guy who was going to repackage for me for the RC tank crowd, but I never pulled the trigger since the market sucks.

Here's one that is excellent: http://www.syrenshipmodelcompany.com/miniature-rope.php

For tow cables: picture frame suppliers. You'll find braided wire in various strands and thickness and it's relatively flexible because it's designed to be twisted over itself on eyelets on the back or large frames (trust me, I was a framer for years). I'm not talking about the stiff braided cable from the hardware store that may look good but is impossible to conform since it's more like spring steel.

For tarps: tissue paper. The stuff used for presents, not blowing your nose. Cut to size, soak with PVA (white glue), fold however you want, paint as necessary. Or to save time, mix paint with the PVA.

Max-U52

And if you go to hobby lobby, don't forget your 40% off coupon. You can get one right here:

http://www.hobbylobby.com/weekly/coupon.cfm

MAUS45

Wow, thanks for sharing the Syren site Ausf!!!

ausf

No problem. That man is an artist when it comes to winding rope. The stuff is fantastic and inexpensive too.

tomhugill

For tarps I find lead foil to give the best effect!





abd without oaint

ausf

Lead foil is great for static stuff, I'd be worried about moving it with RC though since it's always pliable. Plus you're limited in size since it's usually marketed towards flags and shelter halves.

The tissue method is actually glued in place so it's not going anywhere (and it's real cheap too).

These two on the StuG are tissue and paint. The top one is covering the bolt for the traverse mechanism, the rear one cover a resin Kubel tire.

tomhugill

I've not had a problem on my m51, it does get battled too! To be fair the tarps tied down so can't go too far. I think I've been quite lucky as I've been able to buy it in larger (approx A5) sheets so you can get a few tarps out of it.

ausf

Lead products are hard to find in the States, compared to the UK. The biggest foil sheets I've come across are post card sized.

On a related note, whenever I needed full lead solder for resistance soldering, it came from your side of the pond.