The Abbey of Vaca Sagrada - Part Five

Clarence Harrison - On to the roof... Unless my building is a simple square or rectangle, I always make templates for the roof out of paper to make sure the fit will be precise. Thatched roofs can be made from teddy bear fur purchased from a craft or material store. Simply cut a strip of the fur to size, glue it to a card frame, and brush the fur with white glue. Shingled roofs are easily made from card. However, Spanish tile is difficult to construct from scratch (it can be done by cutting up drinking straws into uniform lengths and they cutting these in half) so I purchased a few sheets of O-scale Spanish tile from Plastrux. Using the paper template, I carefully cut out the roof sections and glue them to the building. At the peak of the roof I glued a small round dowel rod and then covered it with a single strip of tiles cut from the card. I glued a plastic bead to the peak of the roof of the tower and again covered the ridges with single strips of tile.
 

With a complex roof, it is a good idea to make templates out of paper.

Since I made my template fit the walls exactly, I want my roof slightly larger so it will hang over the sides.

A sharp blade and steel ruler are used to ensure precise cuts.

A perfect fit!

Short post this time... next week we are going to glue the building to the hill and add texture!