Building a Building (Part III)

Now let’s put on the roof. Just like the walls, they are cut out of cardboard; we do not have to paint them black because the shingles will cover the cardboard surface entirely. The shingles where made with 80lbs paper stock. I first put on my workbench a dozen sheets of paper held down with thumbtacks, I then drew parallel lines to guide me on the height of the shingles. Each shingle is cut out with the Xacto knife, I determined the size by eye, and to give the effect of a cedar shingle I vary the size of the shingles.

We can now cut the shingles along the line that we drew, this process may seem tedious but remember we have a dozen sheets so it makes the job quicker. As can see in the pictures only half the line is individual cuts while the other half holds it in place. As for the installation on the roof, you must trace the lines the width of our shingles. The remaining task is to affix the shingles to the roof using white glue. Now you could use commercially available shingles, but I did not have any in my magic box. Nevertheless, by doing it yourself it is so much more satisfying.

Have you ever looked at real cedar shakes, you will notice that they turn grey very quickly when exposed to the elements. A big mistake made by a large number of modellers, is that they paint the roofs brown or beige when in reality it should be grey. I started painting the roof with acrylic grey paint, you must be sure to cover the paper well and don’t forget the roof line. I then went about painting some part lighter and other parts darker with a Dry Brush technique. This is a process where you wipe the brush to a point were there is little paint left. Once this process was completely dry I applied a very diluted black wash made with aquarelle paint, acrylic paint would have the same effect. In some areas, I used less diluted black and even added touches of burnt sienna. Once finished I did notice that the roof had gone a little darker then I had planned, but the effect overall was quite interesting, so I left it alone.

The chimney is made out of a small bloc of balsa wood, using an Xacto knife I traced out the brick décor. I then painted it with red acrylic on some of the chimney; I used lighter and darker colors to simulate different brick use on the chimney. At this stage you must use as little paint as possible, you must not fill in the tracings you have made for the brick. When the red is completely dry, I apply some diluted grey wiping it immediately after painting it on, this grey will fill the gaps in the brick and simulate mortar.

The gables were finished with small pieces of wood. I found a sign on the net and I was able to rework it in Photoshop so that I could get the words Canoe and Lake in French. The posters also came from the net and were made on my printer.

I hope you have enjoyed this series of articles and perhaps I have given you a slight push, so that can try these simple techniques for yourselves. We have a tendency to think that a project like this is difficult, but as I have attempted to show, it can be quite easy and very rewarding. Using these, techniques allow you to build unique structures that cannot come from kits. I must also say that the economics are also an advantage. This building unbelievably cost me about $10.00 and about the same time as building a kit.