First scratch building

[Mike Griff]

Hi Fellas and Ladies,
Doing my first station building in Plasticard, just realised i havn't a clue how imay do the ridge tiles.

Its freelance and rough stone with slate roofing, if you have the magic key please help, thanks. Mike

[invercloy]

I use thin card for slates cut into strips and marked appropriately.  Could you try this to cover the join?

[Tigger]

If it's slate roofing you don't necessarily need to use ridge tiles.  Some buildings use lead roof ridging.  For my chapel I represented this with a strip of paper approx 4mm wide.  I scored it down the length by ruling a pencil line and then folded it.  The weathered lead was represented with Humbrol matt 64 light grey and the securing straps were simply done with a pencil.

[Graeme Dunbar]

Possibly some fine L section plasticard, so long as it does not look too out of scale. I guess it depends very much on the location and era. In some areas half round might be used, even with slates. I've a dim memory of there being fancier "crested" type in one of the plastic manufacturers roof fittngs set, but that is perhaps OTT for a building with rough stone walls.

[Tigger]

And of course many Victorian slate-roofed buildings were graced with decorative terracotta ridge tiles.  Scale-Link used to do appropriate etches and Wills might produce something useful.  Agreed Graeme, location and era will dictate the approach.

[Tigger]

Incidentally, the slates I used on the chapel were from the Howard Scenics range.

[Mike Griff]

THanks Guys, Nice chapel tigger. mmmm, yes the fancy Crested stuff would be a little over budget for my line i think, butted tiles might do it though, ve shall c vot ve shall c, nes pas? Mike, and thanks again.

[Tigger]

Many thanks for the compliment Mike.  If you'd like a bit more inspiration, here's another view.  It's inspired by one at Abergynolwyn.  Not quite the whole depth though.  There was room but I wanted to make certain that the chapel building would mask the end of the house backs in the backscene.

[Hugh Norwood]

I use 120gsm card (thick paper really) for both the slates and the ridge tiles. I created a file in MS Publisher so I could mass-produce slates. The majority on a sheet are the usual size ones, and there are three progressivley smaller sized sets of slates - as they usually get smaller as you approach the ridge. If there's demand I could post a PDF of the page for anyone else to use.

[Mike Griff]

Thanks for the offer Hughn. Looks good Tigger, I like the red brick wall and gate, the yard surface and "drive way" look good too, very straight and accurate in appearance.
I,m using the sheets of slate tiling from plasticard, the sheet has rows of tiles interspersed with plain rows, this means you can cut a plain row and tiled row together as one strip and lay them overlapped giving a real tile incliine appearance. Of course now you are going to say "surely they do ridges then" they may well do but it would cost me probably twice the price of the goods in postage to Ireland, so rather than order unnecessarily or wait till i had a worth while list i might gleen some trick from the knowledgeable masses, you see you guys do have your uses.
     

[Tigger]

Oh I'm glad we're useful!  :D I was one of those who initiated the Forum in its present state and one of the first users when we piloted it but I've hardly touched it between 2008 and a few weeks ago.  I've been pleased to see how it seems to have developed into a mutual help community.  Thanks for your comments Mike.  The wall is a brick-paper sheet and the gate is from Ratio.  The granite sett yard surface is Metcalf self-adhesive sheets.  The drive-way, if I remember correctly is a Woodland Scenics fine ballast of some sort.  What I must do is finish off the scene and the whole station yard using fencing from the same range as the gate.

[Mike Griff]

That would look terific I,m sure.
I have started creating fencing, I,ve used cut down cocktail sticks. Snip off the points, cut in half, drill with 0.8 mm bit, place in pot with brown greyy mix of watery acryllic paint shake a lot leave to stand, fish out onto kitchen roll, dab off set aside to dry. Thread 5 amp fuse wire, drill base board and fix.
Looks good if you run a brown red dry brush along to weather the wire and takes a bit of time but satisfying.

I congratulate you on your assistance with setting up this forum, it serves modelers of all abilities very well and is a credit to all who set it up. Thank you. Mike

[pilotfriend]

The chapel is one of my favourite buildings..... bloody excellent

[Tigger]

Many thanks John; praise indeed.  It benefits from having been built much more recently that the other structures (by nearly 30 years!) and my improved skills.  Here's the interior in case folks haven't seen it.  What you can't see in this view are the lobby at the back, the piano with the music sheets and the pew with the prayer book left on it!  You should be able to make out the cobwebs in the corners though (there's one above the stove).  Charlie Insley thinks I ought to get out more although one of my fellow group members feels it's safer for the rest if I stay in...

[pilotfriend]

It is in addition, very prototypical ....................... empty!