Entry posted by BG John
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With the walls built and assembled, the next job was the roof. I was trying to use as much of the Dapol kit as possible, especially bits that would otherwise end up in my collection of spare parts that may not find a use elsewhere. The slates are a pretty good match for size and spacing with the Wills sheets I was going to use for the rest of the roof, but nowhere near as sharply defined. As the shed was going to be at the back of the layout, I didn't think this would matter.
The first step was to fit the ventilation grills in the raised part of the roof. As I needed 1½ of the parts from the kit for the visible side, the hidden side was cut from plain Plastikard. They were stuck in place, trying to keep them as straight as possible, as they are quite bendy.
Next I tackled the Dapol part of the roof. I'd built the lean-to a suitable length to leave enough roofing to make up the length I needed. The parts were joined using a piece of Plastikard on the back for reinforcement. Due to all the messing about with the kit, the resulting roof wasn't wide enough, so I cut strips two slates wide off the top part of the Dapol roof, that I wasn't going to use, and joined them to the "top" of the roof, staggering the joints for strength. It was then stuck to the building:
The joints are far from perfect, but good enough as they won't be seen from normal viewing angles:
More by luck than any great sense of foresight, the strips on the back of the roof that are designed to locate inside the Dapol kit, actually fitted neatly on the outside, and will be used to attached the barge boards away from the walls:
It's a shame that Wills sheets aren't bigger, as they need to be joined on a building this side, and due to inconsistent thickness and width of slate courses, that's not easy! I cut two pieces of the required size for the main roof on the visible side, and joined them as best I could before attaching them to the walls:
Although I got the slate courses to line up pretty well, the sheets at this point were different thicknesses, and reinforcing them on the back meant that the front surfaces didn't line up. This is a rather cruel photo though, as it's not so obvious in real life! A forum discussion revealed that I'm not the only one who has problems with this though, so I don't feel quite so bad about it!
Before fitting the raised part of the roof, I attached pieces of embossed stone Plastikard to the ends of the vertical part to represent the thickness of the stone walls.
The raised part of the roof was next, using the same method, and joints in the Wills sheet that were no more successful! I sanded the top edge at an angle, so the two sides meet up fairly well, and the ridge tiles will cover the imperfections:
The "hidden" side shows how the Wills and Dapol slates compare. I certainly wouldn't mix them like this on a viewing side, but I think they will be fine here, especially when painted. Being a cheapskate, I made two joins in the Wills sheet this side to save material!
This is the view from the inside, showing where I've reinforced the various joints. Having not bothered to make any parts that won't be visible on the layout look good, I suppose I could get caught out one day if a train mounted video camera appears!!!
This is the shed as it is now. The windows aren't fixed yet, as I have some work to do on the stonework, and they are probably best painted and glazed first:
This is how I'm leaving it for now. The main purpose in building it was to help with planning the layout it will go on. To start with, this layout will be used as a test track for renovating my existing EM locos and stock that haven't run for many years, and for testing my unbuilt and part built kit collection as I work on them. When I've got enough stock to operate it, I'll develop the scenic side, including adding the missing details to all the buildings. As I'm gradually getting back into some serious modelling after a very long break, I'm trying to develop my skills, and get tools and materials organised, in different aspects one step at a time. I hope I'll make a better job of the smaller details after some more practice. I'm trying to avoid painting for now too, as there are so many new ideas since I last did any, and I'm very rusty, and want to wait until I can spend time learning and practising.
Having built this shed with the intention of putting it at the back of the layout where the imperfections are less obvious, a change of plan now means there's a good chance it will be placed right at the front of the layout! I think I'll just about get away with it, if I'm lucky!!!!
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