More from Kurt. The RSO's body...

Jig for the tarp

Forming the tarp

Kurt, can you please explain how you did the tarp?

This looks real nice, Kurt

I apologize for taking so long to respond but here we go. The tarp is made of a square of kleenex that will ultimately have a watered-down white glue brushed on it during the forming process. Initially I set up the forming-jig for the tarp that duplicated the size and measure of the bows on the tractor bed that support the tarp. My first attempt this process was to soak the kleenex in a shallow tray thay had the diluted glue mixture in it. This was a very messy failure. The primary reason was that the soaked kleenex was very fragile and tore easily. The procedure I finalized on was forming a small section of the dry kleenex over the forming jig then, with a #1/2 square ended brush, applied the glue while holding and forming it. I used this method of forming and gluing the rest of the tarp. I let the glue dry for a day or so. The jig-bows were made of a cut coat hanger. My thought was that it was a larger diameter than the plastic kit bows that the tarp would be going over thus allowing an easier fitment to the model. Removal of the tarp from the jig was done carefully, loosening small sections of the tarp from each of the jig-bows so the tarp would not be damaged. The actual length that the tarp hung over the edge of the bed was cut before painting. The painting was done with acrylics. BUT i did learn that the pait should be put on very sparingly as you do not want to resoften the tarp. After the initial acrylic paint was done, I sealed it with dullcoat before shading with oil paints started. After the oils were done I called it done.