Southwest Chief Posted March 15, 2015 Posted March 15, 2015 I noticed the post on printing Lego sail replicas and that got me thinking. Has anyone has made realistic colored sails to use on Lego ships? I'd like to equip a few of my ships with realistic canvas/cloth colored sails instead of the multicolored Lego sails. Of course I'll keep the Lego sails, I just would like more realistically colored sails to use for display purposes. Lego did a great job on the "new" Imperial Flagship (10210) sail colors. Any ideas on what materials to use, of if there is a third market company making Lego sized sails to purchase? Quote
Captain Braunsfeld Posted March 15, 2015 Posted March 15, 2015 For the brig "India" I have tried to use custom sails made out of cloth (not dyed, they were just white). I have attempted to dye cloth sails but was never happy with the results... Quote
Admiral Bejaune Posted March 15, 2015 Posted March 15, 2015 (edited) I have had great success with creating custom sails. The trick is to use coffee and tea to get the darker color. I let my sails soak for 3 days in about 8 cups worth of both coffee and tea. The sails on the uss president are almost perfect color. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=422198 Edited March 15, 2015 by Admiral Bejaune Quote
Southwest Chief Posted March 15, 2015 Author Posted March 15, 2015 Wow those are absolutely beautiful sails Admiral Bejaune. Coffee and Tea are great ideas to get the color. Do the sails smell of coffee or tea afterwards? What material did you use? And it looks like you drew lines on. Special art pencil? Quote
Admiral Bejaune Posted March 16, 2015 Posted March 16, 2015 The sails did smell like coffee at first. But the next step in the process eliminates that smell. I have not explained everything in detail. So I will start from step one. 1. Buy thin fabric that is not transparent. I get mine at Walmart in the textile section. I buy about 6ft of fabric. 2. I use instant coffee and tea. Usually an entire box of both (depends on how dark you want them. ) pour the coffee and tea into a bucket and cram the fabric into it. Leave for 3 days but check on it to make sure it's all saturated in liquid . 3. Air dry in the sun. It will give it a more weathered look. 4. Buy wallpaper glue and paint both sides (this might take two days if you let one side dry before you paint the other) the glue makes the fabric stiff and canvas like, and it keeps it from fraying while cutting it. 5. When dry measure out your sails and cut them. For the lines I use a pencil and a ruler. I sew my sails on to the yard arms with thread and needle. That's it! Good luck with it. You can message me via pm if you have any questions. Quote
Southwest Chief Posted March 16, 2015 Author Posted March 16, 2015 (edited) Thank you very much for the detailed description. If the sails smell, I can say the ship is transporting tea and coffee Edited March 16, 2015 by Southwest Chief Quote
Admiral Bejaune Posted March 16, 2015 Posted March 16, 2015 Thank you very much for the detailed description. If the sails smell, I can say the ship is transporting tea and coffee Haha ok. But I can assure you that they will not smell like coffee n tea for very long. Especially if you follow my step by step! Quote
Captain Braunsfeld Posted March 16, 2015 Posted March 16, 2015 Thanks for the detailed instructions. Now I know why it did not work out for me: I just tried for a few hours... Never for several days. Quote
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