Simulating inside body Fiberglass finish

[grandsport3]

Afternoon Fellows, Most of my favorite racing cars have Fiberglass bodies. I'm working on a Corvette Grand Sport and Chaparral 2A Late. Spent a lot of time photographing (which I lost most to water intrusion) numerous cars and hand laying Fiberglass.We all know what raw Fiberglass looks like, the question is: Has anyone tried to paint a body to simulate raw Fiberglass?  My best SWAG would be to spray inside with fat white or a pale yellow and use a sponge with light brown to "Cross-Hatch" the cloth pattern. Any advise out there? Thanx for listening, John

[Chris K. Hale]

I would think you could "Wet-Dry Brush" any enamel paint to achieve this effect. Basically paint it heavy with an enamel paint let sit a bit, not dry but not too wet, and go back with a wide flat end brush and brush your texture into the paint, I have done it on other items to achive a texture look and think it would work for your project. You can go back and paint over it with a thinner enamel paint to make the color more solid but be careful not to fill the texture you have created. Hope that helps...Chris
ps. remember not to use any Lacquer based paint over an Enamel , it will eat it, but Tamiya Acrylics will work fine over enamel..

[swede70]

Greetings,

This might seem a strange approach, but for a 1:12th scale '69 Z/28 project I was thinking maybe one could chop tiny lengths of fishing line into a media that could be sprinkled atop a surface prior to applying a finish suggestive of a gel coat.  People apply flocking for dropping media on a surface covered with clear lacquer, hence why not strands of fishing line laboriously cut just so and in suitable volume?  The surface would bear a texture not simply suggestive of strength adding strands of material within the resin used, but actually represent 'the stuff' so to speak. Maybe not suitable for all scales mind you, but it may be feasible for something larger.

Mike K./Swede70

[4wheels]

I was stripping some thermostat wire recently and had a similar thought! Some multi-conductor wires (bell, some phone, and thermostat, to name a few) have a loose sheath of fine fiberglass strands between the insulated conductors and the outer insulation layer. It is very fine and I thought if you had a few lengths of it, snipped a whole bunch of short pieces and sprinkled them into wet paint (like flocking, as Mike said above), it would look a lot like hand laid fiberglass. This stuff would work in smaller scales, down to 1/32 I would imagine.

Brian

[arcticwolf]

Mar 5, 2021 12:49:01 GMT -8 4wheels said:

I was stripping some thermostat wire recently and had a similar thought! Some multi-conductor wires (bell, some phone, and thermostat, to name a few) have a loose sheath of fine fiberglass strands between the insulated conductors and the outer insulation layer. It is very fine and I thought if you had a few lengths of it, snipped a whole bunch of short pieces and sprinkled them into wet paint (like flocking, as Mike said above), it would look a lot like hand laid fiberglass. This stuff would work in smaller scales, down to 1/32 I would imagine.

Brian

It's a great idea. Maybe use an oil based paint (stays sticky longer) that's the right colour, and when it dries put a coat of smoke over it to muddy it up - might be worth a try.

I love this place!!

[johnny]

A good way to get the texture of raw GRP is using tumble drier conditioner sheets. Glue on to surface using PVA sparingly. Certainly works for 1:12th scale and bigger. I imagine you could dry brush the texture to highlight it.