Using Plasticard Slates

[Mark Laidlay]

I am building a model of a station building based on that at Echuca on the Murray river in Australia.  The prototype has a slate roof.  I got some Slaters slate sheet from Eileen's hoping it would be obvious as to how to use it.  I guess it is just cut into strips with a length of plain and a length of slates.  Then is is laid from the bottom of the roof with tiles at the bottom, then the next row of slates go on top of the plain strip.

 

Have I got it right?

 

Mark in Research, Vic. Australia

[rovex]

That's right but to be honest I wouldn't use slaters embossed. The moulding is poor and result unimpressive.

I started using evergreen styrene sheet v grooving of an appropriate spacing. Cut at right angles to the grooves and with any burr removed and then overlapped on the sub roof

[Mark Laidlay]

What's the Wills product like?  Is it a better option?

 

Mark

[Siberian Snooper]

I use Cartridge paper as recommended by one of the more eminent modellers, but I can't remember which one. I drew up a grid in Autocad to show the slate sizes and the overlap, to suit the sheet size, this makes laying a roof fairly quick.

[rovex]

What's the Wills product like?  Is it a better option?

 

Mark

 

The Wills product is good, but you are limited by the size of the sheet and it can be difficult to hide joins if doing a larger roof.

 

It also has the benefit, on a smaller roof, that you don't need to use a sub roof.

 

Representing things like lead valleys can be problematic

[ed7]

I have been quite pleased with Scalescenes slate - downloaded and printed onto heavy paper.  You cut this into strips which then overlap.   I printed onto grey paper (Daler Rowney) which removes any issue with the cut edge appearing white (or needing to be coloured with a felt tip pen or pencil).   I have also cut this grey paper (with nothing printed onto it) into slate strips (including tiny gaps between each slate in a strip) using a Silhouette cutter.   This also gives good results. 

[Mark Laidlay]

How about the Redutex stuff  https://www.dccsupplies.com/search/results/?search=slate. Looks expensive and availability seems shaky with lots out of stock.

[bécasse]

I have been quite pleased with Scalescenes slate - downloaded and printed onto heavy paper.  You cut this into strips which then overlap.   I printed onto grey paper (Daler Rowney) which removes any issue with the cut edge appearing white (or needing to be coloured with a felt tip pen or pencil).   I have also cut this grey paper (with nothing printed onto it) into slate strips (including tiny gaps between each slate in a strip) using a Silhouette cutter.   This also gives good results. 

 

I have great piles of traditional roofing slates in my cellar so it has been easy for me to measure the thickness of a pile of 100 of them to get an accurate average thickness. In fact, a pile of 100 is around 57 cm high, so each slate is 0,57 mm thick, divided by 76,2 for 4 mm scale gives a scale thickness of around 0,075 mm, marginally thinner than typical 75 gm A4 copier/printer paper. Artist's acrylic matt varnish is probably the best medium for sticking slate strips together for a roof and, if you are using a Scalescenes' print, weathering will quickly remove any hint of a white cut edge. The slates on the completed roof should look almost flat, they do on the prototype.

[Siberian Snooper]

I have great piles of traditional roofing slates in my cellar so it has been easy for me to measure the thickness of a pile of 100 of them to get an accurate average thickness. In fact, a pile of 100 is around 57 cm high, so each slate is 0,57 mm thick, divided by 76,2 for 4 mm scale gives a scale thickness of around 0,075 mm, marginally thinner than typical 75 gm A4 copier/printer paper. Artist's acrylic matt varnish is probably the best medium for sticking slate strips together for a roof and, if you are using a Scalescenes' print, weathering will quickly remove any hint of a white cut edge. The slates on the completed roof should look almost flat, they do on the prototype.

I think you will find that 570mm divided by 100 will give you a thickness of 5.7mm or in 4mm scale 0.07mm. I would assume that is why cartridge paper is recommended.

[bécasse]

I had originally typed 0,57 cm but then decided that quoting the thickness in millimetres was better - but forgot to move the comma, sorry! The original post has been corrected now. The modelled thickness quoted - 0,075 mm - is correct and I reckon that cartridge paper is too thick, but everyday copier/printer paper is about right, provided that any paint isn't too thick.

 

Incidentally, modern reconstituted slates are even thinner.