Materials Help - for Market/Cloth/Awnings

[Death]

Hello all, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for a material to use for tent like/cloth material?   I was thinking thin copper sheeting for hobbys but I couldnt find any recently.  Any other suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated!  I was going to build a market place similar to the pics below

[Etranger]

Lead foil if you can get any! I recycle the foil around wine bottles.

Failing that, aluminium foil works but you need to experiment a bit to fine one of the right rigidity. Take away food containers often are of the right consistency.

[tyrionhalfman]

I once saw some tents done with a tomato purée tube, if you don't mind having to put some work in cutting them down the side and cleaning them up.

Another idea may be multiple layers of paper covered in pva to stiffen?

[Cherno]

You can buy a sheet of linen from the local fabric/textile store, it comes in different colors, white or off-white is best. For stripes, paint them yourself or stick a piece of the sheet to a normal sheet of paper with Scotch tape, and just use your inkjet color printer to print them! If you want to make them tougher, you can also soak them in a water7elmer's glue solution and let it dry.

This method is often used for the sails of pirate etc. ships.

[Mason]

I would do what Cherno said.

Just cut up an old bit of cloth and paint it with a mix of paint and PVA glue.
That is what I did with the larger tent here (I used and old white cotton t-shirt) and it is pretty solid when dry.










The added bonus of using cloth is that the fibres will begin to show if you drybrush it before it is completely dry.
 

[grant]

That looks like a seriously filthy bordello!

Nice work on the model though. 

[Eric the Shed]

If you want the awnings stiff use plasti-card covered in pva soaked kitchen towel.tissue

[Silent Invader]

One more solution .... One ply of plain/smooth kitchen paper dribbled with superglue (but mind the fumes).

[SotF]

If you don't mind layers, one thing that works rather well is to take a layer of paper towel soaked with white glue and water of about the right size, let it dry in place then repeat with some tissue paper. The end result works quite well and looks like cloth.

[FramFramson]

Depends on the texture to emulate. I've used thicker take out napkins soaked with PVA and paint as tarps, cloths, or felted blankets (they have a better texture than kitchen towel). I have also used linen as "canvas":







The main thing is that it hangs naturally, like fabric.

[Death]

Wow thanks everyone for all the great tips!!  I probably will try all of them at some point for different projects.  I am going to build the structure and see which of the materials I have in my house and hopefully by tonite i'll have some pics.

[bandit86]

I just did a bunch using some office folders cut them out in the shape I wanted  using the file natural crease for the bend in the covering.  It is a nice stiff card and can be painted.  I'll try to get a photo up