What's the best Thatched Roof technique (1 of 2)

[@j453]

Sweet man! Edit: Bro that bath bath towel method is perfect!

[@KnightsOfDice]

Yeah, I love it!

[@scott17601]

The bath towel method looks great. Perhaps you could make a roofline jig, start by attaching a line of the brush and paper edging so that it over laps the roof. Then lay a bead of hot glue (parchement on the roof jig) hit the bristles with a heat gun to melt them down the middle. Once they melt a little and bend into your bead of glue they should set nice in the shape of the roof line. Let the glue firm up and then trim and apply.

[@BillMakingStuff]

this is a great tutorial!... never expected the towels to work so well

[@KnightsOfDice]

Yeah, I was impressed too ... so far it's my favourite method

[@bigbrowntau]

A good trick with the towel method is to feather the edges a little bit to give more of an impression of thatch. Save it for older, more run down thatching. Absolutely great video, Viv, thanks again. And thanks too for the "warts and all" apporach.

[@KnightsOfDice]

Thanks for the tip ... I never seem to settle on doing something one way all the time, I can't seem to stop myself from "playing around". I've got a lot more to do so will try feathering some out and see how I go!

[@limeovertime7904]

Hi! We're watching you with my mate and we were wondering-did you ever make the part 2? We can't seem to find it. Cheers!

[@KnightsOfDice]

Hahah, no ... a classic Viv move!

[@thestoicsteve]

Thanks for the tip re brown bath towel. I had been looking at teddy bear fur but will try this technique!

[@KnightsOfDice]

I do like the teddy bear fur but i prefer the bath towel!

[@dndsl3436]

Great video. I especially found your points about the colours of the thatching helpful. Not many other tutorials for thatched roofing mention this.

[@KnightsOfDice]

Awesome, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I must get back at some stage and a) finish the part 2 video, and b) perhaps do another video with the suggestions others have left.

[@tinaprice4948]

The towel looks really good :D

[@KnightsOfDice]

Yeah, I like it a lot!

[@MacAttack001]

I use the jute twine combed out. It takes a fair bit of work, in the end though it looks great.

[@KnightsOfDice]

I'm looking forward to that one, but I'm not sure how much patience I'll have for doing more than one! :)

[@debbralehrman5957]

Of the 3 bath towel looks best.👍🏼

[@CorruptedQuill]

with the top part of the thatch with a nylon brush, maybe a heat gun at the end would work to help the nylon parts fold over. Also the air drying clay tends to crack when you add pva under it, i think b its because the pva shrinks as it dries, and moves the clay with it.

[@KnightsOfDice]

I must get back to this project! Interesting but of info about the PVA under the clay ... thanks!

[@VorpalDerringer]

2:55 Hey, just the solution I needed! I jumped in and bought a bunch of brushes, hopefully I can finagle some thatch sections like that.

[@leiflohne3096]

Most helpful. Must buy mats now

[@robwustyle]

If you can heat the nylon brisles they should bend to what ever shape. Make a jig that holds the brisles and can bend them to the right angle. Love the vids

[@gregbradfield1686]

Great vid Viv. The nylon bristles have a natural bend where the metal clip was just flare them open like a person splitting and straddle over ridge line as if it were a person riding a horse. Hope it makes sense!

[@KnightsOfDice]

It makes total sense! I dont know why I didn't think of it!

[@birds641]

@@KnightsOfDice use this but glue to the dole then glue dole to the ridge like you did but have the bristle up

[@aehink143]

Just in time for me to give a shot at some fantasy buildings!

[@KnightsOfDice]

Get amongst it mate!

[@Jux925]

So helpful to see the mistakes

[@MatakishiTeaHouse]

After my first try with towelling (I used a white one), I went and bought a stack of brown hand towels. Learn by doing :D

[@KnightsOfDice]

Haha, I think I would have done the same thing (used a white one) if I didn't already have the blue one at the studio! :)

[@jamieambler1243]

Awesome video! The mrs isn’t going to be happy with me next time she goes for a bath though...

[@KnightsOfDice]

Haha ... don't use the good towels? :)

[@blu3835]

Teddy Bear Fur from Spotlight, by far the best I've worked with, cheap to!

[@TheLichsLaboratory]

Towel is the way to go there man. Good job

[@KnightsOfDice]

Yeah, it worked out really well. I need to edit the second video but for speed, efficiency and effect the towel method will be my go too for larger projects

[@TheLichsLaboratory]

@@KnightsOfDice Maybe when you apply the initial hot glue, you could spread some extra a bit lower to prevent having to go back in with a second super glue step? I could see the untreated individual fibers kind of being a hassle to wrangle but it may be worth trying

[@smoessmee]

Really like the look of the bathtowel, I'm looking forward to seeing what you manage with the bristles, maybe something a little less synthetic might work? Like those cheap paintbrushes you can use for reeds and rushes.

[@KnightsOfDice]

Yeah, I think some natural fibres might be easier to work with

[@elstonation]

Cool video dude. Never would have thought bath towels but now I've seen it, it totally makes sense. Might have to try upgrading some of my old mdf kits with your techniques

[@KnightsOfDice]

Really impressed with the bath towel method, it worked really well!

[@arnolfostandolfi9730]

wow really nice and usefull channel! really usefull and cool tecniques

[@thattassiewargamer]

I really like the look of the towel roof. I’m going to give it a crack. 👍

[@KnightsOfDice]

It's probably my favourite so far, thought there are still a few others to try!

[@zid_just_zid]

Looking good! Maybe you could use that bend in the bristles across the top of the roof? If they are too bend to lay well a bit of heat will likely soften them to allow for reshaping.

[@KnightsOfDice]

Yeah, I don't know why I didn't think to use that bend in the bristles to put along the top! Very keen to come back and try it.

[@BlackJack6569]

I bet some light heat might soften the nylon bristles from the first try to bend them to where you need them like maybe with a heat gun, a lighter, or even a hair dryer maybe, you just have to cut them long enough.

[@worldhistoryminiatureshous9757]

You should try with a silicone gun and a wood pick. I have created celtic house like that .Fast, efficient and a great result!

[@kristofferlinden6306]

Thank you for showing the bath towel. Read about it yeaterday. So how did you do the house walls?

[@stevebryce-grant1107]

Here in the UK we can still buy PLUMBERS HEMP which gives a good effect of thatch

[@KnightsOfDice]

Interesting, will have to look it up

[@SkallagrimGrimkjells]

Heat gun on the nylon bristles. Just put your paper sheathing on both sides, fold it over a metal ruler, hit with a heat gun. Hot glue them to the ridge and cut the paper sheaths off.

[@KnightsOfDice]

It's a great tip, thanks!

[@crapphone7744]

Set the bristles to fold over the roof line that were made of nylon, did you try maybe a heat gun to soften them up and then push them down and glue them?

[@abagoffrozenspinach]

this is exactly the content i was looking for!! i'm building a replica of the baba yaga hut from witcher 3 and i just couldnt settle on a method for making the thatched roof. thanks so much for dedicating so much time and effort to finding the best technique for this!!! also--bunnings, the warehouse, the $2 shop--are you in aotearoa? kia ora!! :D

[@KnightsOfDice]

I'm on the other side of the ditch mate :) glad you found it useful!

[@markhanson9508]

I'm building a little thatch house. Everyone recommends teddy bear fur but I neither have a bear to mutilate nor the need to build more than one house so don't want to buy a whole bunch of fur. I do however have plenty of old towels so I'll be giving that a try!

[@jasonstatham5879]

For the nylon ones, what if you took the ones that you put in the paper sheath, then glued the loose end along the top, then cut the paper off? Another option would be to glue them to a flat piece of paper and once glued down, fold the paper and glue the paper down to the peak of the roof?

[@arjade_24]

Dont know if you solved the nylon ridge problem, but does hot air gun make the nylon more plyable maybe?

[@RogerS1978]

For the brush was thinking that you could glue the centre of the fibre to the top of the roof horizontally with CA glue then use a heat gun to melt the fibre so it bend by itself.

[@KnightsOfDice]

A few people have mentioned that it's so simple yet i didn't think of it!

[@microforgeminis]

The towel roof looks great viv. How would you compare it to teddy fur?

[@KnightsOfDice]

I think it's easier to do and looks better. Though with teddy bear fur you have the option of changing it"s length by shaving it down with some clippers

[@felixmeyer7842]

Great Video! I will try the towel Method. In question of the nylon bristles I thougt that maybe bendig could work for the rooftop. Have you tried using a hot air gun? Something between 100°C and 130°C could work. But I'm just guessing.

[@KnightsOfDice]

I need to finish the second part of this series and I'll try the heat gun on the some bristles ... several people suggested it!

[@NMDRigan]

Thanks for the video, not seen your stuff pop up since I watched your SAGA based videos quite a while ago now! P.s Great bath towel method, shall be definitely my goto method now. I had actually been using decoraters caulking, and running a plastric fork through it to do my own thatched roofs, it looks really good but I have some issues with paint/primer adhesion at times. So the towel method I shall have to try.

[@whilehobbying]

Neat! Viv doing hours of R&D so we dont have to! Cheers!

[@KnightsOfDice]

Well I'm going to play around anyway, might as well pop on some cameras!

[@xephorce]

so the bath towel worked so well that it killed part 2 of the video series?

[@bonefactory1393]

At least you're watching Stargate SG1

[@KnightsOfDice]

Every day mate ... gotta get that fix!

[@richardbradley2335]

Note to self...dont use the same towel i use to wipe me bum with.