AFAIK, canvas
~roofs (i.e., canvas over wood) were not much used on freight cars after
the
~turn of the last century. Unfortunately, I've never seen a builder's
photo
~of the WP cars, though maybe Garth Groff or some other WP maven knows
the
~whereabouts of one. In any event, the time-honored way to model canvas
~roofs in HO scale is to paint the roof with a slow drying paint,
stretch
~strips of Kleenex over the paint with the edges overlapped to represent
~seams, and then apply another coat of paint. On the models I've seen
where
~this technique has been employed, the results looked pretty realistic
to
~me.

For once I'm inclined to disagree with Richard. Canvas reduced to HO has
almost no discernable pattern - nor in HO. This is one of those
revelations that came from modelling real aeroplanes (the sort with two
wings and open cockpits) in quarter inch scale - it's not even
noticeable in O.

The paint and any other waterproofing fills the weave so completely that
the pattern disappears at anything other than extreme close up. However
it may tend to wrinkle and pull a bit at the corners and fixings as the
wooden structure of the car gives and changes shape under varying
temperatures, humidity and loadings.

Aidrian

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