How to Make Miniature Slate Roofs from Cardboard Part 3

Things went a little faster than I thought they would, which meant that I could start on the roof of the Tudor Apothecary Workshop.  First of all, I had to age the plaster-work.

The first coat is a yellowish dirty water wash, as the area under the roof overhang on the chimney end would naturally retain more soot drifting down from the chimney.

The arch end of the building has a smoother finish, as it will be mostly covered up by the roof of the shop proper, so it needs to look more like an interior finish.

The dirt, soot and greenish algae has been added. As it is a bit too yellow, it will need to be scrubbed out a little to better match the lower storey.

On the open end, all that is needed is a little general dirtying up, from smoky air, candles, braziers and the like.

Now we install the roof tilt-board; this is a slip of scrap wood 1/8" or 3-4mm thick at the bottom end, tapering off to near nothing at the top. This is what will support the cardboard slates, and give a very slight lip to the edge of the roof.

As the open, arch end of the roof has no overhang, I had to use masking tape to hold the glued tilt-board in place until it dried. The edges are then painted dark brown, and we wait for everything to adhere nicely. The first course of slates - cardboard strips prepared in previous posts - is glued with an overhang of about 1/8" or 3-4 mm. Subsequent courses are glued at the same distance, below the previous course's top edge. Then you just add  each succeeding courses. Because I have to glue each strip down separately, holding it in place with masking tape, this will take about 3 times as long as previous roofs, which had overhangs on both sides. Those roofs were done 3 strips at a time, held in place to dry, about 20 mins., by a slat of scrap wood held on by spring clamps that neatly held the slate strips in place.

Four courses are in place in the above photo. Note that the slates overlap about the middle of each preceding course; I had prepared strips that began with both a half slate and a whole slate, to make this a nice, quick process. The end by the clamp is being trimmed as I go along; I had to lay a few courses to decide on the finished overhang on the chimney end. This is the back roof; the process is pretty simple until I get to the chimney, then I will have to cut and fit the courses around that. The edges of the chimney have "lead" flashing, silvered copper self-adhesive tape darkened with a permanent black marker pen.

Before I go to bed tonight, I will have filled in up to the chimney; tomorrow, when I am hopefully fresh and wide awake, I will start adding the strips that have to be cut to accommodate the chimney.

The top of the roof will have a piece of bent cardboard to act as the top course. That still has to be made, I saved a paper tablet back for this recently. It will be cut to fit, so will have to wait until the entire roof has its slates.