Tutorial: Tarps for Sd. Kfz. 251

Hey guys! Sorry, it's been a while and I wish I had time to put this up a few days earlier... But you know... Yeah you do, so let's get started ;)

As promised, this is about how to make tarps for Armourfasts Sd. Kfz. 251. Of course you can use this method for anything else, maybe some wild-west-cart or whatever you can imagine :)

First, I decided to make a base for my works, because I didn't want to handle the freshly painted hanomag all the time.

I measured the outer edges of the open cabine and made polystyrene sheet with exactly those measurements, so it can just be put on top. It's roughly 35mm x 20mm, but please measure for yourself.

Next step: Drilling holes for the bails. I tried to find some images of hanomags with tarps, but they are rather hard to find. In the end, I drilled by sense of proportion ;)

You need to drill as close to the outer edge as possible. Also, you should drill a little skewed, so that the bent bails fit perfectly. I won't go into depth here, just look at the picture above, where I tried to mark the skewness with blue arrows.

Please keep in mind that the bail at the back is tilted a bit forward! 

For the position of the holes, I used (measured from the back) 0,7mm; 13mm; 25mm. This might be inaccurate because the foremost bail sits far further in reality. You can do this as you wish, but it proved perfect if you want to place a figure at the front of the open top or want to leave the machinegun uncovered.

I used a 0,8mm drill because I had copperwire in the same strength.

Now cut some copper wires to 24/25mm long pieces and bend them to a shallow slope. They should just slip into the drilled holes. Fix them with CA. As always when you work with CA, you should wear gloves.

Right now, you should place the whole thing on top of your hanomag and decide what you want to do with the front part of the tarp. As I mounted my machine gun with the butt hanging down, I had to carve some part of the base, so that the tarp can hang down into the compartment and the Machinegun as whole can stay visible.

If you plan to place a figure, you have to carve out a lot more. In fact I left about 3mm after the foremost bail.

 You can put the gloves on again , as we will continue working with CA (as you can see, I forgot it and instantly sticked to my project :-D ). Take a piece of tissue, roughly 35mm wide and 45mm long. Put a drop of CA on the very top of each bail-wire and press the tissue on it. 

As soon as its dry, you can start to put CA on the left half of the bails (from top to bottom). Do all three bails at once. If you are fast enough, you can also put CA on the edge of the left side of the base. 

Now pull the tissue against the CA. Be careful not to tear it appart!

If you are done with it, do the same on the right side.

If you are done, you should have a nice tunnel of tissue :)

Now fix the tissue to the back edge and to the (carved) front edge.

Just to be sure, I went around the edge and added another layer of CA.

When its dry, use a sharp knife and cut off the overhanging tissue. It should look like this:

Pretty nice, eh? Don't crow to soon. It'll look ugly in a minute. 

To add some stability, we need to cover it all up with some heavily thinned white-glue. Apply 3-4 coats of it with a soft brush, letting every coat dry for about half an hour at least. My tissue began to slobber when it got wet and in the end it looked like sh-t. I almost threw it away and filed it as another trial-and-error-error. But that would have been wrong. The solution is simple:

Take another part of tissue (again 35mm x 45mm), wrap it tightly around the tarp and start soaking it with thinned white-glue. While it dries, apply a fair tension to the tissue. This time it will not slobber. Again, 3-4 coates of White-Glue strengthen the whole thing, when you're done, cut off the remains.

Now you can paint it as you wish. Hopefully the result looks roughly like this:

After applying a coat of gloss varnish, add some ink/wash to emphasize the folds (yet to be done on my hanomags).

I hope this helps and inspires you guys :)

If you do something similar, blog it please :) I'd like to see your results!

Cheers, Mojo