Where can I find quality seat fabric

[Sixx]

I was wondering where I might find seat fabric for inserts. Are there any aftermarket dealers that carry this or has anyone braved making their own, if it's even possible.

I looked in the search function to find some or tutorials on how to apply them. I would imagine they'd have to be very thin.

Thanks

[MPWR]

What exactly do you have in mind- using 1/1 fabric to simulate 1/24 fabric? I don't think you're likely to find a suitable option. If you want to simulate a seat covered with 100 thread per inch cloth, you'd need a swatch of 2400 thread count- and it simply does not exist. Using 800 tpi (the finest you're likely to find) would look like the seats were covered in the coarsest burlap made.

Weave texture on car seats is subtle enough that if it's really visible it looks odd. It would look even stranger in 1/24.

[Sixx]

Andy,
I can see what you're saying. I've seen some guys say they made seat inserts and i assumed they were fabric.

I've heard of using a thin, supple glove leather that the backing is some how removed to make leather seats.

I guess I will have to stick with paint or decals for the inserts!

Thanks again!

[Wu_Dan]

Hi. I have the same problem. I am looking for quality seat fabric - for years hehe.
I nstill haven't found it but I have some conclusions that may help us.

Why seats in models don't look good? - Because they are plastic.
As MPWR says there is no fabric where fibres can be so congested to give realistic effect.

But we people recognize what material we looking at almost immediately without touching it (n most cases). So THE LIGHT must be a factor here.

Leather is less shiny than plastic (and matt paint too) but it still shines a little. It disperse some light and some is reflected.

Fabric seats don't shine at all. Fabrics "eat light" and much less is reflected.
I don't know is there a paint that is so matt that it reflects very little light.
Also fabrics are not smooth on the surface - this affects light reflection as well.

So I think we should look for proper material for seats not among fabrics but rather among paints. Maybe adding something to paintcould help (I havent tested anything yet).
Or I would also try some artificial materials (fabrics, rubber - soft rubber cuz that hard one could be shiny as well or something like this).

Ok I dont know if I said something that makes sense but we tackle difficult task here and I thought that any word may be helpful.

thanks.

[rsxse240]

I don't know how it would turn out, but I have thought of spraying a gloss color, and letting it tack up for a few minutes, then "flocking" it with something like baby powder or baking flower, then over coating it with a flat color of your choice. This would give some texture, but not so much like actual flocking material.

I think the reason plastic parts look so plasticky is that it looks as if it is one solid piece with details carved into it. So paint application is where you should put more focus, rather than what kind of paint. Seats, for example, are not one solid piece in 1:1 cars, rather you have fabric/leather, plastic side trims, shiny switches, seams in cloth, and various other details. all it takes to make a plastic seat look more realistic is a smooth paint job with nice crisp paint separation lines, and added "shadowing" (washes to bring out shadows).

I recall someone's Honda S2000 that I swore up and down that the guy just took a picture of a real car's interior, when in fact (and only after I zoomed in by 1000x) it was little more than a finely detailed, with paints, box stock interior with a set of keys added. He/she did nothing more than use high quality paints, with an airbrush, and some decals on the dash, some delicate picking out of details with what ever tool he/she used to pick out the details, put a slightly darker than seat color wash in the seams in the seat to bring out some depth. I wish I could find it again, but I'll leave that up to you folks, because I'm lazy, and I already know what it looks like. lol!