Anyone have any good tips/colours to paint brown leather seat cushions? I'm doing a Universal Carrier and the seat cushions just don't look right, they look like a rectangle painted brown. I just can't seem to get the leather look to them.

Thanks ,
JC

To make them more like real seats, covering them in tissue with a pattern and white glue gives them some texture. Lay the tissue on the seats then dab some diluted white glue over the tissue is damp. Them cut neatly around the seat. Making small holes in the corner of the tissue can simulate ripped leather.
Painting them with a dark brown with a litle gloss in to give the shiny effect and a light drybrushing with humbrol leather with a little gloss added. Then dry brush the ends and seating area with a flat beige or lightened leather colour to show wear. If you made holes in the tissue, paint the sponge underneath a different colour like a pale green or dark yellow. I have never really done this, to this extent but I read about it somewhere and it sounds like it would work nicely.

Hi ..

In order to make seats look better i give them a blackish or dark wash... if the seat has some detail on it I let the wash pool more in the lower points and when it dries i apply some light drybrushing on the raised areas. this seems to give them more depth...

If the seat is smooth and has no detail you might want to apply the wash to the edges and mabye smudge up the center of the seat.. making points of contact darker.

Best way I have found to get a good leather look is to use oils over acrylics.......for brown leather I use Tamiya Earth as a base coat....and a dark brown oil paint...there are alot of different ones to choose from....I paint on the dark brown oil paint over the lighter brown acrylic base....then using a clean dry brush I brush off most of the oils paint.....leaving the dark brown in the crevices and a stain on the rest.......it also gives off a bit of a sheen like well worn leather.
I have been in many Uni Carriers and the seats have always been a khaki to green material though....not leather.......I'm not saying there weren't any...I've just never seen any.

I usually paint leather with a black base coat. Then dry brush with a dark brown lightly. The brown I use varies according to the leather colour I'm after.

The paint colors are personal choices and these guys have offered great suggestions. As far as lifting the 'rectangle' look - the tissue paper idea General PB offered will make a huge difference.

One other thing you can do if you go the tissue paper route is to get your dremel out and a round grinding bit and work in some 'bottom' prints. Not deep, not drastic. The cushions weren't really thick. Something to give it a little more depth and more interest.
You can also (if research shows they exist) add buttons. Take some stretched sprue and cut it into thin slices and use them as buttons. Add them after you do the tissue paper. You can even put one button in and one thread in as if a button has been popped off.

Here is what would do:

1. Paint base with Vallejo Leather Brown
2. Give it a dark, dark brown (almost black) wash
3. Paint highlights with with lightened Leather Brown
4. Dry-brush with a light brown/sandy color.

Great ideas guys, thanks!

JC

Hi Ribble, I usually color the seat with dark red or brown . Then dry brush with lighter colour , sometimes I use beige colour to enhance the raised areas. Good luck.

Now this is just hear say but I read in the detailing of model cars that this one guy to when you got your color picked out and want to do vinal or leather seats. Wet your thumb from the sweat of your forhead when the paint is almost set up and press your thumb over it using your fingerprint to give it a vinal or leather pattern. Like I said this is just hear say, but he made it sound convincing to me. I'm looking forward to doing it myself soon. Hope this helps.