Miniature Tile, Slate & Wooden Shingle Roofing

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In this technical terrain tutorial, we get ready for the "Let's Make - Medieval" series by looking the various techniques you can use to make tiled, slate & lead roofs and also wooden shingles for roofing. As usual, I'll be covering all the materials, tips and techniques for creating roofs for the middle ages from both the wargame terrain making community and the diorama makers.
We'll be looking at thatch and tuft techniques in another videos folks!
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[@richbuilds_com]

Great intro to roofing. Considering its the part of the model you spend 90% of your time looking at, they are woefully underrepresented. So many options!

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Yeah, thought it best to do a simpe technical tutorial rather than trying to tackle them as part of a lets make mate. Out of interest, what your prefered material? I know your buildinsg are top notch

[@richbuilds_com]

Thanks :-) It depends on the building. Modern buildings are too neat and tidy for me to scratchbuild so I use embossed plasticard unless it's a really simple roof. I use balsa for wooden roofs (tiles, slats, flat). It's dead easy to get a nice texture and a doddle to process if you have a balsa strip cutter. Cheap if you buy in bulk too. For flat tiles, I use cardboard sheet (usually a couple of thicknesses to get some variety in the roof) and for shaped tiles I use plastruct which I hot bend to shape over a form. They are a bit of a faff - if I was doing a massive roof, I'd buy the tiles ready made - life's just too short :D For thatch, I've had good success with teddy bear fur - combed to lay correctly and then brushed over with watered down ready mixed polyfilla. There are a lot of styles of thatch though. Kitchen scourers can work too but you have to work at them to stop them looking like scourers.

[@Filiplego1]

Man you are full of surprises, I though it was impossible to make roof tiles without 3D printer or buying of off internet; thanks for the technique!

[@GregoryGeilman]

Nice start for the medieval Let's Make. I did an inn a few years back with wood tiles that were meant for a doll house, real cedar shakes. Made the roof look great!

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Wow, now that's proper terrain!

[@Gladedancer]

Thank you for the cereal box slate tile idea. It has been going well, but strips are definitely the method for me on my tavern build. I would go insane doing the tiles individually! I am trying the wood shingles for a work shed next, so thanks again for the info :)

[@billd.iniowa2263]

Shingles: Just make the strips an inch longer and mark/cut them all the same. Glue them on the roof, offsetting every other row. When dry, cut them flush with the end of the roof using scissors. That way you wont have to worry about the lateral placement and can concentrate solely on keeping the strips parallel (the hardest part of the whole operation). Your ends will always be perfect that way.

[@TheTerrainTutor]

I knew you'd have some top tips mate

[@billd.iniowa2263]

Yeah, I just had too much trouble trying to get the pre-cut strips to line up on the ends AND keep them parallel. The wood glue I use gets tacky really fast.

[@euniqu]

Im currently drawing a piece involving with rooftops and my head can't wrapped around how does roof designs are made, Like a simple reference wasn't enough for me and i stumbled upon this video. It was really really REALLY Helpful! Even though im not making a miniature rooftop with cardboards and stuff, I just want some designs for my art. It's still awesome. Thank you so much! This vid helped me in different ways

[@prnzali2010]

Great look on the wooden tiles. Cant wait to try

[@DrMurdercock]

In 5th grade we made a Civil War diorama of Antietam. Everyone was just making shit. And I decided to make buildings our of pebbles, toothpicks and other various items I gathered on the playground. I cut hundreds of little roof shingles out of construction paper. Made fence rows with the tooth picks. Loved it. You have me wanting to try to make dioramas now.

[@IntergalacticApeMan]

Nice tips as always, mate. I've already seen comments about corrugators or corrugated cardboard, which I think is another affordable way, but I'd like to add there are corrugated styrene and metal sheets from different modelling companies if someone wants to go down that route. It's pricey though. Another way for doing impressions in a smaller corrugated scale btw. are cakepop sticks or ribbon cables that where used in computers a few years ago. They are often available for free from the electronics trash. I use those for post apocalyptic barricades etc..

[@Stubborn18]

It's a really intresting and helpful channel this. Even if your not into wargameing and just into the modeling side of it. Great channel increaderbly helpful and it's all explained easy to understand. I like this channel lots. Thanks for producing and posting these videos terrain tutor...👍

[@johntailby74]

after joining your patreon crew I feel more legit watching these videos. there are some great ideas in the video.

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Thanks for supporting them mate!

[@billd.iniowa2263]

You know, for 3 bucks a month, this guy has saved me at least a hundred bucks on materials that I would have wasted trying to experiment with. not to mention all that time.

[@nathanthom8176]

Another option to use is polystyrene disposable plates. They take a texture quite well are easy to cut

[@samuelconsolatti-welch5876]

I love to see the return to videos mel keep at it!

[@TheTerrainTutor]

It's good to be back mate

[@Deteeff]

I bought a shingle punch that produce individual 5*10 mm shingles. The roof of my current project required almost 2000 of those... Took some hours to punch and glue :) As a sidenote, I used cereal box card board and I actually have the grey side up because I think the paint will stick better to that slightly rough surface, compared to the glossy.

[@TheTerrainTutor]

That's a lot of shingles buddy

[@twitch1965]

The foil tiles, looks like an interesting way to possible make corrugated metal! Love the videos!

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Hope it helps mate

[@bethanygraham427]

That was a really useful and informative video! Many thanks, Sir.

[@cendrakumala9391]

Smart way that you give, thank you

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Glad it was helpful!

[@pebblesthecat3625]

You can also use strips of corrugated card to make the Roman pantiles. Cut in strips roughly 1½ - 2 cm and overlap by at least ½ - ¾ of a cm. Looks great and works fine - also a damn site cheaper !

[@ishnifusmeadle]

I know I'm late to the party, but for clay tiles, be sure to check your bakery isle at you local shop or party supply store. Sometimes food crafts have these pre-corrugated foils for cake and desert decoration(a lot like muffin liners which may work depending on ur scale and with alittle trimming). I wish I could remember what they're actually called, but regardless it's just a matter of changing across the correct size. Just an idea. Not perfect but an option.

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Top tip mate

[@Pedro116092]

I found the aluminium from milo and coffee tins works very well for tiles, also green stuff world makes a hand held roller for the making of corigated iorm tin sheets which would be great for the tiels. Great session and looking forward to the thatched roofs, keep up the great work

[@theogtsm9951]

I'm really looking forward to the medieval terrain series!

[@jamie69murphy]

TSM 101 I second that! It’s what I’m most interested in.

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Vids for that should start coming out in Feb mate, just need to finish these trenches and do a couple more technical vids first mate

[@littlejimmy5020]

The terrain tutor's technical terrain tutorials TTTTTT Loving this one Mel :)

[@TheTerrainTutor]

That's a lot of T's ;-D

[@littlejimmy5020]

All you need is a cup of tea to go with

[@medinamammadova467]

Thank you so much

[@TheTerrainTutor]

You're most welcome

[@aleishabrooke964]

Facts about the roof angle for snow was interesting! I didn’t know that :D love learning random stuff in a tutorial

[@Kindgott666]

Just came back to your videos and they´re as good as ever! I've recently started a new project (my own interpretation of "Diagon Alley") and needed a motivational kick to start it off. Thanks mate!

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Make sure it goes corner to corner on your board bud!

[@Kindgott666]

Will do. Plan is to install some LED´s to lighten up the mood....god what have I done...

[@michaelmanning5379]

A great source for heavy foil is frozen lasagna. The lasagna comes in heavy foil trays with a nice heavy sheet of foil as a lid. Both lid and tray survives a trip through the dishwasher.

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Top tip matey

[@mhxistenz]

Corrugated cardboard works well for clay tiles.

[@MrWulfgarr]

Tin roof too!

[@AzraelThanatos]

Yep, that's what I've used to great effect on several projects

[@TheTerrainTutor]

I've always struggled with the overlapping, it's a lot of fancy cutting to replicate tiles, I just keep screwing it up lol

[@AzraelThanatos]

The easy way is to start with a piece of corrugated cardboard, strip one side off after you cut it to the size for your roof. You can then use as is (Using the chopped up straws over a small craft dowel to cover the peak), or if you want to go fancier, use strips of corrugated, thinner cardstock that matches the normal corrugation and use layers of it to make your tiles. You really wouldn't see the vertical separations in the tiles anyway, but the horizontal ones would be easily seen then... I've mainly use them for more Japanese structures and walls for Ronin games.

[@richbuilds_com]

Don't forget - you can you can take a mould of any roof you make and cast it on demand with air curing resin. Not as cheap, but sanity saving if you have a lot of roofs to do. Failed casts can be used as rubble and debris.

[@TheTerrainTutor]

I've yet to play with resin casting, any product recommendations mate

[@redgreen09]

yes ever green at most train shops and me yes out GW mag WD larned that roof stuff and model railroading to got do some fun to do will see when you post

[@Parsley1968]

I’m tiling my dolls house. I’ve found that painting sand paper with masonry paint gives a nice textured effect and then I cut out the strip tiles the same way you have. Ready made roof tiles are so expensive but I hate the wall paper roof effects which are not realistic enough for me.

[@terry_kathryn]

Parsley1968 thank you Parsley 🥰

[@DrMurdercock]

Whoa. That's an amazing idea. Dollar General or Family Dollar, (here in the states) sell packs of fine grit for one dollar. That pack alone would make thousands of roofs

[@mooncabbagere]

Could maybe use two craft knife blades stuck together for putting a gap between slates in one pass. No idea if it would work, but it might be worth a shot. Another option might be to score or compress the gaps before cutting them, with the back of a butter knife.

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Tricky but could work buddy!

[@elisabethdavid3926]

What a beautiful tutorial! Love it!!!

[@scubaguymi]

I was just wondering about wood shingles for American West buildings. Gotta check to see if i have any 2mm balsa! Thanks Mel!

[@garryeckert5929]

I used doll house shingles. Nice work

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Are they expensive?

[@garryeckert5929]

I built a doll house for my nice and had some left over and made some to complete some I did not pay nothing for it.

[@Multiklaaas]

Great stuff, Mel! Looking forward to the medieval let's makes :-)

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Cheers matey

[@lorcanievers1813]

I enjoyed that cheers.

[@BADDERSBETTERDIORAMAHACKS121]

Nice, but you can completely do away with the cutting slits between each tile in a row by not cutting your cardboard into strips first. Mark out the entire sheet of cardboard with your 'tile grid', that is a full sheet of whole tiles, in a grid pattern. Then cut the cardboard into vertical strips (columns). Then glue all those strips onto a sheet of paper, as they were before, but with very 0.2mm gaps between each column. Then cut horiztonally across each 'row'. You've then got your horizontal rows of individual tiles (each separated by 0.2mm for 'joint detail' Then you just glue each strip on top of the one below, with each rows offset by half a tile width and with each row of tiles overlapping the one below by whichever tile length you desire. To give you some idea of the time saved, I drew out a grid of tiles on a piece of A4 paper, each tile 10mm x 6mm and fitted 840 tiles on it. And using my method I cut 840 tiles on the horizontal and vertical axis with just 62 cuts, ending up with 28 rows of 30 tiles in length. I could do it in 60 cuts if I left trimming the ends off until last. Have a look on my channel for vid, you may find my method comes in very handy for you?

[@marcellocolombarini1653]

You are the best👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@Hobbyrepubliken]

Yay! ❤️ your tutorials!

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Me too!

[@IDICBeer]

Nice share mate

[@arnold-shortsnigga]

Take a shot everytime he says "yeah" 😂

[@nickhardy9862]

Another great tutorial Mel, love your presenting style - have you got a link to your roof tile painting tutorial please ? Regards Nick

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Actually, that's something I need to cover mate

[@nickhardy9862]

Thanks Mel

[@jameschester1727]

Loving the videos, and your presenting style. Have you ever made any oriental style buildings? (Samurai era for example)

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Working on some ToH stuff now mate

[@PaintPlastic]

Oh hell yes

[@ValkristAncamacil]

You can do the clay tiles with corrugated cardboard.

[@pebblesthecat3625]

Why don't you make a large silicon mold so you can make large(ish) sheets of plaster tiles and trim them to size as required ? That way you only have to make one sheet of roof tiles, then make the mold, then cast 10 or 20 sheets of plaster roof tile sheets. Lots quicker in the long run mate !

[@tonystevens3825]

Great tutorial cheers

[@TheBattlinBarrowGaming]

Mel, do you have problems with vampires? at the end of the video behind you on the shelf, the sharpened stakes....

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Always be prepared!

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Oh, you mean my pencils! lol

[@TheBattlinBarrowGaming]

Lol that makes much more sense, than Mel terrain builder by day, vampire hunter by night.....Oh does it??!?

[@joshjohnston7388]

He USED to have a problem with vampires.

[@Merlin-gu9nz]

The silver tiles could you not just run them through a corrugater?

[@richbuilds_com]

You have to find a corrugator of the right size. Finding the right sized tubing is much easier. If you *can* find a corrugator of the right size - do that every time! :D

[@TheTerrainTutor]

As Rich said, finding the right size is a challenge, also corrugators are wavey, tiles are more like rows of humps, so there's a subtle difference in shape as well mate

[@papersack4290]

Yeah

[@AnnoyedKitten]

Thank you for yet another good video! :)

[@Justwayne88]

Really useful thank you :)

[@nadiahossain6827]

Lovely ❤️

[@zxcvbob]

Hi Mel, you never said what scale your wargame is. I'm making 15mm terrain for Flames of War. I've tried making the cerealboard shingles and I was making them too small. Is 1/2" about right for 15mm? It sounds too big, but the 5/16" I was doing was way too small so 1/2" is probably good. I really like the part where you use clippers to just notch the ends rather than trying to cup a narrow V halfway up the strip (that's what I was doing and it wasn't working) Also, nice tip about putting the shiny side up. Thanks

[@TheTerrainTutor]

I'm a 28mm guy

[@farmboiis6767]

i know this video was a long time ago but i’f you can please reply with the link for the ever green website

[@happyboar1019]

I have just discover this video and your KZbin Channel. Very cool tuturial 😎 I subscribe Now 👍🙌

[@TheLiveonstage2010]

how would you do conical roofs ?

[@TheTerrainTutor]

Either single balsa shingles or curved strips of cardboard tiles mate

[@erikbrown1827]

Ha ha ha. I just finished one side of a building's tile. But by bit. Took some time, but it is all off center, and a good fantasy feel. Only a week to do. So I have another week for the other side. (Good old Fruity Pebbles) come on mate, I am not that rich for that amount of Plasti-card.

[@thesinaclwon]

This is my first time watching one of this guys videos and I was not at all ready for his Scottishness 😂. Also bro calm down you are going to hyperventilate.

[@Goulmy86]

How about DAS clay?

[@TheTerrainTutor]

That'll be covered in a separate vid mate

[@vasili1207]

3years later my cardboard roof still ain't finished 🤣 .... I should have heeded the warning.

[@stefannikolov4387]

First