Making seat belts

[hal8000]

Is there any tutorials on how to make or scratchbuild seatbelts or other cockpit items?

I'm currently working on a Revell 1/72 Eurofighter (older EF2000 not typhoon) model.

Its the material and how to make the buckles/fasteners that will probably give me the trouble.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Saul Sheldon]

Hi Hal8000

Thanks for your comments about my fw 190!

I usually make seatbelts out of strips of Tamiya masking tape, cut to size accordingly. You can make it two layers if it looks too thin of course.

Buckles can be made of foil, bits of plastic cut or shapen to suit or spare bits of photoetch if it looks right.

It's always the most effective detail addition in a cockpit, I think.

Good luck with your Eurofighter Put some pics on when it's finished!

Cheers, Saul

 

[hal8000]

Hi Hal8000Thanks for your comments about my fw 190!

I usually make seatbelts out of strips of Tamiya masking tape, cut to size accordingly. You can make it two layers if it looks too thin of course.

Buckles can be made of foil, bits of plastic cut or shapen to suit or spare bits of photoetch if it looks right.

It's always the most effective detail addition in a cockpit, I think.

Good luck with your Eurofighter Put some pics on when it's finished!

Cheers, Saul

Thanks Saul, Ok will do, my models look great from 3 feet away, its when you get close up, but i'm improving slowly. Thanks for your help.

Just found this on google also:

http://www.promodeller.com/how-to-scratch-build-seat-belt/

 

[Plastickitbasher]

Thanks for passing on that link most interesting

 

[Mighty Finn]

Is there any tutorials on how to make or scratchbuild seatbelts or other cockpit items?I'm currently working on a Revell 1/72 Eurofighter (older EF2000 not typhoon) model.

Its the material and how to make the buckles/fasteners that will probably give me the trouble.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I find the foil that swan scalpel blades are wrapped in is just the thing for making straps. Cut to width and lenght they can be threaded though etched brass buckles etc. primed they take paint well and can be folded realisticly on seats

 

[stona]

I find the foil that swan scalpel blades are wrapped in is just the thing for making straps. Cut to width and lenght they can be threaded though etched brass buckles etc. primed they take paint well and can be folded realisticly on seats

Or the stuff off the top of a wine bottle - added bonus, you get to drink the wine! Not recommended before attempting to put buckles on the belts.

Steve

 

[Mighty Finn]

Or the stuff off the top of a wine bottle - added bonus, you get to drink the wine! Not recommended before attempting to put buckles on the belts.Steve

LOL How many bottles to the model is the average requirement

 

[stona]

LOL How many bottles to the model is the average requirement

One bottle is more than enough for the harness - I find I need several more for my health, particularly when things don't go quite as planned i.e.for every model I've ever built!!!!

Steve

 

[SpitfireGirl]

Here is South Africa tootpaste tubes are made out of a soft plastic. I use strips of this plastic to make my seat belts - I have to sand it down a bit for smaller scales but it moulds to the shape you want easily.

 

[flyerscales]

How do you make the buckels for the harnesses?

 

[stona]

Honest answer is I don't know how you'd do it at 1/72. I do it with wire at 1/32 and (just about) at 1/48 on the rare occasions I go there. If you used foil maybe just remove the paint to reveal a bit of silver beneath. A 1/72 buckle is awfully small!

Steve

 

[ugly 6]

HI there

I understand that masking tape doubled over makes for a reasonable effect of a belt ,it gives it a texture.

Solder is a good medium for making metal parts and comes in various thicknesses for the right effect.

Reasonably accurate buckles can be made from bending the solder wire around a square profile bar and cutting one corner which gives you a square profile buckle looking piece.

Experimental with the above may give a pleasant effect.

or invest in an eduard etch set,less than a tenner.

Ugly 6 out

 

[stona]

All the above is true,but I'm struggling with scale. At 1/72 a typical harness strap is going to be 1-2mm across. If you can bend and fix a buckle on there you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din. It's bad enough at 1/32. I think at such a small scale anything more than an approximation is going to require,as Ugly says,some photo etch.

Cheers

Steve (with apologies to Rudyard Kipling ....no,not the one who made cakes!)

 

[ugly 6]

Hi Stona

Go eyes on here

Promodellers.com - How to scratch build simple seat-belts

ugly 6 out

 

[stona]

Yep,I've used a pretty much identical method,like him, for 1/32 and 1/48. You'll never be able to do that at 1/72 IMHO. I think it would be too difficult to make them in scale,without micro surgical type equipment. Those bits (again as he says) are fiddly at 1/48 and I agree with him having done it! The results look pretty good,I did some in my Stuka.

For my latest build I haven't bothered making the buckles etc.I'll be honest,even at 1/32 it's a fiddly job and I couldn't be arsed doing two sets of lap belts and a full harness. I've just gone for painted foil. When everything is closed up it will give a good impression of the belts/harnesses.

Cheers

Steve

 

[ugly 6]

I suppose at the end of the day and the setting of the sun it all depends on your eyesight and to what depths of detail that one would want to go to ,

But then on reflection there is that guy who carves intricate highly detailed figures out of the end on a matchstick.

Looking at the buckle issue if you indeed can go down to that size for a buckle it just cross my mind that a piece of flex has tiny wires in each core .maybe just maybe the individual wires might just do for it and they are shiny silver.

Ugly 6 out

 

[stona]

Hi Ugly,You are absolutely right.Some people will load there kits with loads of aftermarket goodies whilst others are happy to build out of the box! It is of course entirely up to them.I would just hate to think of someone seeing this and trying to bend those little wires in such a small scale! That matchstick bloke is amazing but I don't think I'd want to try.... never mind a magnifier,I'd need a microscope and some new hands Lol.

Another really good source of fine wire,for doing engine/cockpit/well type detailing is telephone cable.

Cheers

Steve

 

[ugly 6]

Heads up

yes there is a plethora of treasures to be found in every day items that can be converted for use in the modelling world

I think you will find that the finest wires are to be found in mini mains, like soft hair of a fairy.

ugly 6 out

 

[yak face]

Heads up yes there is a plethora of treasures to be found in every day items that can be converted for use in the modelling world

I think you will find that the finest wires are to be found in mini mains, like soft hair of a fairy.

ugly 6 out

Ugly,check out the unconventional materials thread in quick tips, its crammed with this sort of thing, If youve got any ideas weve missed, post them up. cheers tony