Hi

I am looking to order some lead foil to use as leather and webbing straps on my figures, both 1/35th and 1/16. What thickness should I be looking for to use as straps on both the sizes of models I build.

Thanks

Paul

I still use the lead foil scavenged from wine bottles. The thickness varies a bit from bottle to bottle, and I just "eye-ball" it when selecting the thickness of a piece to cut from.

If the foil is textured with little decorative dimples or lines, it can be smoothed easily by rubbing a wooden dowel across it while on a hard surface (like a piece of glass or tile).

However, I don't know what the status is in the UK or EU, but in the US, real lead foil is getting hard to find on wine bottles. I'm sure it has something to do with the "Nanny State" and protecting Californian Lab Rats from harmful heavy metal exposures.

(Or maybe substitute foils are just cheaper... which tells what kinds of wine I usually buy )

You have to really look hard at the bottle of wine to make sure that the foil around the cork is actually lead and not "plastisized" aluminum or just thick plastic. Although, I do have some thick aluminum foil from a wine bottle that makes very nice straps and which has a very consitant thickness.

So, if you can get it, the old stand-by, wine bottle lead foil works quite well.

In addition to what Mike said- you get a lot more of the foil on champagne/cava bottles that on wine bottles. I still see a lot of foil on normal wine bottles too, although if they are moving away from it in America I reckon the British nanny state won't be too far behind!

I also sometimes use Tamiya tape doubled up- i.e. I stick one length of tape to another on the sticky side of both- if you just use the one piece of tape the tacky side will hinder the threading of etched clasps and buckles- hence doubling the tape up takes care of the sticky bits while also giving the tape roughly the same thickness as the aforementioned foil.

Hi Paul,

You can also buy some Verlinden Lead Foil at Historex Agents, at quite a reasonable price..... which is where I always get mine from. Hope that helps..

Jason

Hey Karl,

I've used the tape for years and always painted both sides before gluing.It still never totally stopped the stickyness of the tape.I can't believe I never considered your idea of doubling it up.
Thanks for the wakeup call.

Tom

The wine and cava foils do come with other side benefits!

Thanks for the replies guys

I dont think lead foil is used for wine bottles in the UK any more, mine you not drinking wine or alcohol means I might be wrong, I do know plenty that do though so will ask for them to save me a few foils, just in case.

I can get foil in 0.05mm and 0.125mm thickness and pewter in 0.127mm (Bit of a random thickness that so it might be a typo) What thickness, would these be ok for leather and webbing straps.

In 1/35 is 0.05 ok and in 1/16 is 0.125 ok

Thanks

Paul

I've used colored electricians tape, and dry wall tape, cut to my desired width. Electrical tape is nice, folds over buckles well and has adhesive.
I've found a color that is close to the leather straps of WWII. I've used dry wall tape, it has a nice texture. It'll handle the abuse you put it thru as you work it to the buckle and figure. white glue works as adhesive. I've made buckles from copper wire from wire cords of discarded appliances.
Elec. Tape

I like the wine foil for slings and straps. For me, it requires priming before painting with any medium. Which is just me for preferance.
An alternative I have used is taking a plain brown paper lunch bag and cut it in half and then cut it so each half lays flat. Cut off bag bottom if double or more of paper thickness. Take one half at a time and quickly sponge soak it with rubbing alchohol on both sides.Quickly wad the half into a tight ball and then carefully un-wad it back to reasonable flat status before it drys. Try not to tear it.
While still damp-almost-dry,take same sponge and quickly wash both sides of one bag half with various browns and leather acrylics or water colors. do not soak the bag half and don't worry about colors merging. Wad the bag half into a ball again and then un-wad it back to fairly flat again. Let dry completely. This is for euro army gunslings,belts,and straps.
Do same with other bag half and use drab greens and olives instead of browns and you have U.S. and some Brit/Commonwealth colors. A straight edge and #11 blade does the portioning very well.
Black strapping can be done by using flat black felt marker or sponged black acrylic after cutting either color strips.
Cheers!
Note- your hands will get dirty for sure! use latex or nitrile gloves if you have allergies to paints/solvents. I barehand it and then wash up.SWMBO still gets cheesed off.

Hi Paul,

I use the Plus Models lead wire rolled flat with a paper hanger roller.

0.04mm is a good size for rifle straps.

Al

Hi Paul,

In 1/35 scale, you almost can't go too thin. Once you add a couple coats of paint to both sides, even the thinnest straps become slighly thik-ish. The beauty of the lead foil over other materials is its ability to hold its shape to suggest gravity or movement, but there is a limit to how thin you can get it in. So, the thinner the better IMO.

I do think that I'm going to give Alan's tip about flattening lead wire a try as I'm running out of scavenged flat lead foil.

In larger scales, this might not be the case, but since most of my experience is in 1/35, I can't offer much advice there.

Just my .02, as it were, but for 1/35 scale I'd suggest going about as thin as you can given whatever materials you're going to use.

Hi Mike,

The rifle straps for these guys were made from 0.04mm and the kit straps from 0.05mm. The reason I like the lead wire is consistance plus with the range of various sizes you can make straps of different thicknesses.






Cheers

Al

Just thought I'd throw my 2p worth in on this one. For rifle slings/ straps etc, I either use electrical tape (if the strap is to be taut) with the adhesive removed. This can be removed with the stuff you use for getting rid of chewing gum. Ask the missus for it If you need to depict the straps hanging, ie; with a bit of weight to it, use pewter foil. This is a good source: http://www.fredaldous.co.uk/pewter-piece-300-x-500mm.html Expensive, but it'l last for years.
Gary

As a plan B, maybe you could also use resist/drafting tape which is used for etching circuit boards ? This tape is a like a very narrow black masking tape. Several widthes are available (from 0.5 to 2 mm IIRC)



A similar product is the graphic tape, which comes in several widthes and colors (like those made by Chartpak...)

HTH

Frenchy

You can also dust or lightly rub baby powder(or the like) on the adhesive and the tack goes away,ready for paint or whatever next.

Furnace tape is another useful one. At home depot they sell crappy thin tintape, at real hardware stores they sell the much thicker tape that one actually seals HVAC with. The crappy stuff is good for making little straps and what not. I've never used lead or pewter before, just repurposed whatever was handy. This does make me curious tho.