Update - Camoflague net.... 60's 70's style...
You can purchase cam nets in various materials from a decal (AFV Club) to etch brass (Eduard) and I have tried them all. I was never satisfied with the end result, and so I set out to make my own, as used and got tangled up in and around anything that was not smooth, which will be fondly remembered when taking one down after a good German downpour of rain...
So how do I start...
The first item is to paint a sheet of paper (printer paper) usually about 3 inches (75mm) by the width of a sheet per colour. The paint used is your choice but I use acrylic, Tan, Brown and two greens.
I paint Tan on one side, and once dry I paint the other side a shade of Green. Then repeat the same but using Brown and once dry, the other side is painted a lighter shade of Green.
This is then cut into strips about 1mm to 1.5mm wide...
The strips are gathered into about a half dozen and the ends levelled to remove the unwanted white paper. These are then fed through a piece of tube, in this case some plastruct tube, but any tube can be used, as all it is doing is keeping the strips together.
Here you can see the strips being fed through the tube which has been taped to a spare piece of wood, the length (3mm) has been measured out and with a sharp knife blade cut into the relevant lengths. For cutting I used a #10 round scalpel blade and used a rolling motion to cut the bits to stop them flying all over the place.
These are then collected together and placed in a tub.... This is an old 35mm film tub..
For my netting I use some netting supplied by Fields of Glory models, but ordinary medical gauze can be used but the holes are a bit hit and miss and the material is a bit on the 'hairy' side.
This is then placed over an open box without stretching it too much...
And now we are ready for the fun part....
I use a mix of diluted pva glue which is sprayed over the net through my old Badger 250 airbrush which I use for 'dirty jobs'...
The pva will attach itself to the netting and once this has been done the camoflague bits are sprinkled over the whole net.
This is then turned upside down to stand on the four 'legs' and the loose cam bits will drop off and the loose bits in the box will also pour out...
Once the first side is dry, I left mine overnight, then the other side can be repeated and left to dry. I left mine for a couple of days to dry and then removed it from the box and trimmed to size. I then gently rolled it into a ball to break the stiffness and to loosen any bits that were not quite attached, opened it out and you can see the results below...
The net is now ready for wrapping around the barrel of my Centurion once the vehicle has been painted.
Cheers
Mike.
You can purchase cam nets in various materials from a decal (AFV Club) to etch brass (Eduard) and I have tried them all. I was never satisfied with the end result, and so I set out to make my own, as used and got tangled up in and around anything that was not smooth, which will be fondly remembered when taking one down after a good German downpour of rain...
So how do I start...
The first item is to paint a sheet of paper (printer paper) usually about 3 inches (75mm) by the width of a sheet per colour. The paint used is your choice but I use acrylic, Tan, Brown and two greens.
I paint Tan on one side, and once dry I paint the other side a shade of Green. Then repeat the same but using Brown and once dry, the other side is painted a lighter shade of Green.
This is then cut into strips about 1mm to 1.5mm wide...
The strips are gathered into about a half dozen and the ends levelled to remove the unwanted white paper. These are then fed through a piece of tube, in this case some plastruct tube, but any tube can be used, as all it is doing is keeping the strips together.
Here you can see the strips being fed through the tube which has been taped to a spare piece of wood, the length (3mm) has been measured out and with a sharp knife blade cut into the relevant lengths. For cutting I used a #10 round scalpel blade and used a rolling motion to cut the bits to stop them flying all over the place.
These are then collected together and placed in a tub.... This is an old 35mm film tub..
For my netting I use some netting supplied by Fields of Glory models, but ordinary medical gauze can be used but the holes are a bit hit and miss and the material is a bit on the 'hairy' side.
This is then placed over an open box without stretching it too much...
And now we are ready for the fun part....
I use a mix of diluted pva glue which is sprayed over the net through my old Badger 250 airbrush which I use for 'dirty jobs'...
The pva will attach itself to the netting and once this has been done the camoflague bits are sprinkled over the whole net.
This is then turned upside down to stand on the four 'legs' and the loose cam bits will drop off and the loose bits in the box will also pour out...
Once the first side is dry, I left mine overnight, then the other side can be repeated and left to dry. I left mine for a couple of days to dry and then removed it from the box and trimmed to size. I then gently rolled it into a ball to break the stiffness and to loosen any bits that were not quite attached, opened it out and you can see the results below...
The net is now ready for wrapping around the barrel of my Centurion once the vehicle has been painted.
Cheers
Mike.
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