Roof tiling

I am rather horrified to admit my Toy House has been sitting without a proper roof since... well since Lock Up.

At least, I had painted the roof, just so it wouldn't look too horrible while I worked on the finishing touches. 

The thing is - I wanted a tiled terracotta roof like these: 

 

As you can see, these types of tiles are different to the barrel tiles seen in southern Europe and are laid in straight lines with interlocking ridges (does that make sense?).

I searched online for mini-versions to buy or tutorials for how to make them. I did eventually find these from Miniacons in Spain. Real terracotta in the right scale - Perfect.... 

 

... only getting them sent to OZ was going to be more expensive than I was prepared to pay. Perhaps I could make them...?

For several nights, I had a production line going.

I used airdrying clay, rolled out really thin. To get the undulations in the tiles, I made up a board from scarps of plywood and wooden sticks. I could then lay my clay strips across the ridges...

...and press the soft clay into place. Once the clay was half dry, I scored the strips so that they could easily be broken into individual tiles. It was all looking every promising. 

But when I started laying them - and, I did (luckily) do a small practice run - I soon realized that they were nowhere near precise enough. Overlapping them caused more problems,  I would need to do so much sanding and tweaking along the way and I was far from convinced that it would be successful. Sigh.. 

So there the house sat,

and sat,  

and sat.

Patiently waiting for a roof.

I had right at the beginning, briefly looked at these wooden tiles from Mini Mundus, but had held off getting them because of the cost. 

Then, during a hardware store visit, I spotted a timber molding with very similar profile. Perhaps I could..???

I bought just one length to give it a try. And as the saying goes: 'the rest is history'.

I cut the molding into tile size pieces and got to work. I don't have any fancy tools, so I just used whatever was at hand to make sure all the tiles were the same length.

I originally had thought, I would tile the roof of the dormer window also. I felt the tiles were a bit heavy, so decided to cover it in zinc (painted heavy duty foil) before I started placing the tiles.

I glued down narrow coffee stirrer sticks above each row of tiles before starting the next row. This is to slightly lift the lower edge of each row, so it looks like it overlaps.

I am so glad, I had left the roof loose. It is so much easier to just lift the whole thing off while I work on it rather than having to move the whole house around.

Cutting in around the dormer was 'fun', especially the angles around the roof, but I think it looks ok. 

I still need to finish the 'ridge' tiles - just a piece of half round timber beading before I can paint. But at least it is now starting to look like a roof.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Anna X