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Tissue tarpaper

brownbr
in Techniques
This thread could also be called "Tarpaper a'la Robert". He got on me during my O'Neills build about my tarpaper. Said I should use tissue instead of the material I was using. He says that he paints his by the sheet and hangs to dry. Surely he build a scale clothesline with clothespins for this task. I found that pre-cutting the strips worked better for me. What follows are the steps I use to make the strips.

Start with a tissue. They will all have some part at the end that you can't use so cut that off. Here is the first tip. I take a sheet of plain paper and fold it in half. Put the tissue inside the paper and cut with a straight edge and new blade.
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Comments

  • brownbr
    edited November 2021
    Mark your folded paper with 3/4" marks to cut the strips. Place tissue in folded paper and start cutting.
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  • brownbr
    Lay your strips out on glass. Give a light spritz of water to hold them in place and try to get as many of the wrinkles out as possible. Then mix up the color you like and dab the paint on with a soft brush. I used black/gray/tan thinned about 50/50 water. Thinning the paint will help in later steps.

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  • brownbr
    When dry, scrape them off the glass with a razor and clean off the edges if needed. Sometimes you will get some paint "wings". If you thinned the paint, these will come off easily. Brushing out most of the wrinkles before painting will help minimize creases in your finished strips.
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  • brownbr
    To install strips, I use watered down white glue...like used to secure scenery. Brush it on lightly to your wood/base and lay the strip down. Wet a clean, soft brush and dab at the paper so it conforms to the roof. Let it dry and weather as you like. I did a few streaks of rust under the corrugated sheet, added a few weathering powders and gave a wash of "dirt".

    I'll continue to try to improve the final product. Hope this makes it easier to try this technique.

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  • Robert.GRobert.G
    Bryan, the reason I don't cut them first in strips is that the tissue is stronger once painted. It dries also better when hung free. I tried it like you did on, glas, but I never got the strips of without tearing them. For the rest , I did like you.. Nice result by the way.
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