Thin Leather and Machined SS

I'm building old race cars in 1:43 and want to use real leather for the seat/seats. I've just spent several tedious hours scraping down a piece of leather in order to get it thin enough to look right. It should work and look great, but there must be a faster way. Is there a source for thin leather?

I also want to get a machined look for the stainless steel sheetmetal in the cockpit. That was fairly common in the 30's and 40's. Any ideas how to get that look?

Didymus

I'm building old race cars in 1:43 and want to use real leather for the seat/seats. I've just spent several tedious hours scraping down a piece of leather in order to get it thin enough to look right. It should work and look great, but there must be a faster way. Is there a source for thin leather?


I know of some webshop in the US that makes very thin leather to go on scale horse sadles and seats, but I cannot find the web address back. I used to have some left overs from them, but they would still be too thick for 1/43rd scale. What you are looking for is probably something in the range of 0.2mm thickness.
Try looking in shops that make those miniature popin houses and accessories, they might be able to help you.

Anyway ... good luck!

You can make leather thiner by sanding the back, but you'll have to use a zirconium sanding belt to do this. Other sanding materials won't work (silicium carbide, aluminium oxyde).

ModelMotorCars.com (http://www.modelmotorcars.com/SalesCat02/PartsPrintout.htm) sells thin leather for Pocher Kits.

Pocher kits are 1/8th though so it still may be a little thick. . .

For a machined look on interiors this small ya can't beat Bare Metal Foil. I've done the same with a few Bugs and such. I also cut small circles of fine sandpaper, glued it to the end of a pencil (eraser end) and then twisted the machined pattern onto the BMF. .

Worked awesome. . :)

ModelMotorCars.com (http://www.modelmotorcars.com/SalesCat02/PartsPrintout.htm) sells thin leather for Pocher Kits.

Thanks for the link. I'll bookmark it for future use. At $30 - $40, MMC is too expensive for what I need.

I bought a bag of Tandy leather scraps from Michaels (a crafts store) for about $8. Some very nice pieces in there; the one I used was medium brown and should look great as racecar upholstery. I used a curved Xacto blade to scrape it down to about .020 - thin enough to wrap around the corners. For some reason, it scrapes down faster after it's been wetted and dried. After wetting, you have to wait while it dries - or towel/blow dry it - scrape some more, and wet it again. It still takes a lot of scraping regardless, but I think it will be worth it. I was surprised that the leather retained its finish and flexibility after all that abuse.

I'll post some photos of the seat after I've upholstered it. I've cut the pieces and I'm waiting to get some Barge contact cement.

For a machined look on interiors this small ya can't beat Bare Metal Foil. I've done the same with a few Bugs and such. I also cut small circles of fine sandpaper, glued it to the end of a pencil (eraser end) and then twisted the machined pattern onto the BMF. .

I don't think I quite understand what you've done with the sandpaper and pencil. Could you explain further?

Many thanks for your responses.

Tom

by machined look, do you mean the little swirls that are on gage bezels and such? if so, then that what he just posted is the right way to go about it. only in 1/43 you may want to use a toothpick, or something MUCH smaller than a pencil.

glue a circular piece of sand paper to the eraser of a pencil. then to get the swirls, you just set the sandpaper on the BMF, or what ever you are machining and give it a twist. move to the next one and repeat. it's a very tedious job, but done right it can look fantastic.

incedentally, a similar process is used in sign painting. We use gold, or silver leafing foil, lay it down on wet paint, smooth it down CAREFULLY!!! then take a small rag, make a ball out of it, set it on the leafing foil and give it a twist. it works great and looks fantastic!

Now I see! It was the diameter of the eraser that had me confused. Thanks.

Tom