seat belts

[guiwee]

hey guys where can i find decent seatbelt material

[MPWR]

Depends what you consider decent, doesn't it?

People use all kinds of different things for seat belts in 1/24- photoetch, heavy foil, craft ribbon, medical tape, etc. It's really a matter of what you think looks best, and what you want to work with. Personally, I haven't found anything that beats paper, or possibly masking tape.

This is one of those applications in modeling where there is no 'best' answer. There are many things that work, and it's up to you to pick your favorite.

[SuperMele]

i use thick napkins... very easy to work with... Easy to glue, cut, and you can paint them in any color...

[Didymus]

I tried Michaels for narrow ribbon, but everything they had was too wide. The problem with most fabrics is that the weave is too coarse, i.e., way out of scale. You might be able to find some finely woven silk that would look okay, but I don't know how you'd keep the edges from unravelling.

KA makes a 1/24 seatbelt kit with photoetch parts and black plastic material for the fabric. The material is thin and fairly flexible, with a very fine texture on one side - more correct in scale than anything else I've seen. You can use CA glue to attach the belts to the hardware. The downside: painting the belts any other color would cover the texture.

Ddms

[brusko24]

Originally Posted by Didymus

I tried Michaels for narrow ribbon, but everything they had was too wide. The problem with most fabrics is that the weave is too coarse, i.e., way out of scale. You might be able to find some finely woven silk that would look okay, but I don't know how you'd keep the edges from unravelling.

Ddms

what i do with ribbons is i trim the sides (the ones here are just too thick) first then i dip the length in diluted white glue or brush my plastic cement on it and leave it to dry. This helps the weaves from unraveling. the down side is it makes the material stiffer and sometimes gets difficult to lay down on an acrylic painted seat.

with masking tape, you can trim whatever width you have so you dont have to go out and buy the thin ones. You may also want to lose a part of the tacky side by rubbing it on something so they're easier to work with when installing your P/E buckles.

hope this helps. Thanks!

[phatmitsu]

I use stuff from my store.. I sent you a pm with more info..

[Didymus]

Originally Posted by phatmitsu

I use stuff from my store.. I sent you a pm with more info..

They look good. What store?

Ddms

[kaho]

Yea they look pretty nice and the size is perfect! Where did you get them from?

[mrawl]

That looks like standard 1/8" ribbon from Michael's to me, < 1$ for an entire spool. There is a pattern down the edges which is a bit out of scale imho, though many real seat belts do have a similar pattern. Check it out, you might like it, they have lots of colors.