Scalescenes slate roof tiling paper

[Peter Kazmierczak]

The recommended way to apply this appears to be to cut the slate tiling into rows, then apply each row individually to the roof using the template provided.

 

But, as someone who lacks the patience, has anyone just stuck down the sheet and then scored the paper to represent the slates?

[sjp23480]

@Peter Kazmierczak

 

I applied mine per the Scalescenes recommendation.  But, I did mount them on light card to give the slates more depth.   

 

Scoring the sheets if they are on light card might help give a bit more relief?  Good luck

 

Steve 

[relaxinghobby]

I've used Superquick and Metcalfe slate papers and follow the Peter Denny method.

Slates in real life are very thin and if you walk along a street of terrace houses that still have slate roofs like I did this afternoon on the way up to Tesco. They are hardly noticeable other than a grey thing up above the gutters.

 

My point is you will be looking at the trains once you have taken your attention away from the roofs where our attention is focused whilst making them and they are put out on the back of the layout at the edge of our attention.

 

So the method that I read in an article by PD is; glue the paper onto the cardboard with Pritstick or Tesco's own brand dry stick glue, then score the horizontal lines between the tiles with a sharp pencil and to tone it all down rub a bit of pencil lead dust onto the roof with your finger. I think the shape of the roof and chimney pots is more noticeable, just the correct outline. 

Slightly fuzzy, slightly greying fading into the distance not distracting from the trains.

 

Here's my Metcalfe terrace and the tall warehouse has a Superquick paper roof.

 

 

 

Come on fix those railings on the coal drops.

[sjp23480]

1 hour ago, relaxinghobby said:

My point is you will be looking at the trains once you have taken your attention away from the roofs where our attention is focused whilst making them and they are put out on the back of the layout at the edge of our attention.

@relaxinghobby this is an interesting comment.  Allan Downes spent a lot of time on the roofs on his buildings - his view was that, given the birds eye view perspective we have on our models, that the roof was the most important part of the model. 

 

If I recall correctly, Allan used to lay individual tiles, later did he used strips of tiles (per Scalescenes) but he then scored in between the tiles on each strip.  

 

Steve

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I think both ways have their pros and cons. I remember AD's coment about the roof being very important too.

 

Whole sheet method:

Pros - easier to just stick down a whole sheet

Cons - lack of texture

 

Separate rows

Pros - provides some texture

Cons - getting glue on the individual rows which looks a mess.

 

Still debating which avenue to follow...

 

Thanks everyone, for all the comments.

[Dorsetmike]

OK so I cheat, I use Slaters embossed Plastikard.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I prefer card myself Mike. By the way, I was in Bournemouth last evening walking through the ( so called) "Winter Wonderland"...

[relaxinghobby]

Hi

Back in the 70's Allan Downs was using sandpaper to make tiles. Cutting the sandpaper into strips with a knife then with scissors cutting the strips half way to show the individual tiles.  Then laying the strips half over the one below. This gave a very coarse tiled roof look. He was modelling a sort of Cotswold stone town with heavy and thick stone sets or slabs on the roof. Would also work for representing west Yorkshire Pennine towns such as Todmorden. Else where in the country red clay tiles are common and they are 1/2 inch thick or about 15 mm thick and slate are even thinner at about 1/4 inch, 8 mm. which is almost unnoticeable in 4mm to the foot scale. So I go for the slightly scored tile paper look, because I am lazy I guess. As with my photos above my layout is at about chest level so my eye is nearer the track for a more immersive experience.

To support my point of view see the photos over on the Amberdale thread or look at photos of the real thing for your reference materials.

[grahame]

I use Redutex tile sheets. It has relief, is flexible, pre-coloured and self adhesive, so you don't even need to paint it or glue it down.

 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Never heard of Redutex - will have a look on their website. Thanks for the heads up on them.

 

In the end I didn't cut the Scalescenes slates into rows, but did score them all individually. In the picture below, the bottom half of the roof has been scored and the top half hasn't, to illustrate the difference.

[Edward]

Can't really see any difference between the two!

[relaxinghobby]

Some examples of moulded roof sheets. Good for heavy tiles like pantiles which I assume are pottery or terracotta tiles and much thicker than slates.

 

Two signal boxes, larger one is Airfix moulded roof so represents tiles.

The small one is Tri-ang with reverse moulding as if the roof is turned inside out like a washed sock back from the laundry.  In real life it is not nearly as noticeable as in the photo. It just registers on the eye as roof texture, as one's main attention is focused on the trains.

 

 

 

More moulded rooves from bashed and abused continental kits re-worked into British style buildings, at least I think so.

Left to right.

Pantiles,  slates on half timbered house, bigger pantiles on small white warehouse, tops of Airfix moulded signal box.

They could do with a bit more weathering. In an attempt to highlight the tiles edges I rubbed them over with a soft pencil but the graphite has left too much shine on them. Perhaps I should rub them with charcoal to represent industrial grime ?

Edited December 15, 2022 by relaxinghobby

[ISW]

On 20/11/2022 at 19:16, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Separate rows

Pros - provides some texture

Cons - getting glue on the individual rows which looks a mess.

I made my own roofing texture sheet from a free downloaded texture, cut it into strips (digitally) and moved them ~1ft (scale) apart. Then added a background using a grey 'picked' from the texture. A bit like this:

 

This was printed on my inkjet and cut into strips. They were glued onto a roof in strips using clear PVA glue. I just used a small brush to 'paint' the glue onto the back of each strip. No mess.

 

Ian