Roof tiles

Like the brickwork on the house I am using the same material for the roof tiles.  These are versi roof slates from Staceys Miniature Masonry.   They are easier and quicker to do than the bricks.  A handy tip - buy a couple of packets of their one-and-a-half width slates, especially if you have dormers to go around.  If the gap you need to fill at the edge of your roof or beside a dormer is less than half the width of a slate it is better to use an over-wide slate and cut that to fit.  Little slivers of tile are visually distracting and wouldn't be at all practical to fit in real life.

tools you need, plus scissors

I start at the centre of the bottom edge of the roof and work away from there to the right and to the left until the first row is in place.  Ignore the lines you see drawn here - they are a mistake (I forgot for a moment how I go about this!)  You'll need some glue (usual tacky PVA is fine).  I put this on the tile with a toothpick or, in this case, teeny tiny brush thing.  A ruler, sharp pencil and scissors are needed now and then.

my checking tile

The tiles will overlap by half .  To keep a constant check on horizontals and verticals I cut a tile in half and draw a line down its centre.  Makes sense to do this on the side you didn't choose for your roof. (The tiles have a silvery finish one side and a black finish on the other). 

keep checking

Every now and then I check that my tiles are staying on course by putting my checking tile at the bottom of the tiles which are already glued in and with the pencil line over the gap between two tiles.  Then I set the new tile new tile exactly above it.  It is now precisely overlapping by half a tile and is centered correctly. 

guidelines

When I have a couple of tiles in place - well spaced apart - I rule a line across the top of them to give me a guideline for the rest of the tiles. This makes each row accurate and very quick to do.

Any questions just ask.

I am sorry I can't show you the finished roof just yet.  I didn't follow my own advice and I forgot to order extra wide tiles so the roof tiling is on hold until I have been to Miniatura and picked some up.  

The pros amongst you will wonder what the heck I mean as Miniatura will have happened in April and you are reading this in July!!  

I am actually writing this post on the eleventh of  March and already have several posts scheduled to keep me going until July.  It seems the obvious way to go about this game. If I write in real time you will be overloaded with stuff when I have time for my hobby and things are bowling along and then you'll not have anything to read for weeks while I am doing a ton of painting or sticking on bricks.  I write something each time I do the next step and add it to the others in the queue so you get a weekly bulletin.

This is why my YouTube videos are out of sync with the blog.