Goblin Halloween Diorama - Part 19 - Tin Roof

Color and distressing experiments.

Today I am blogging about creating the roof for the house on my diorama.  I have been doing some experiments on how to make a tin roof for the house.  In real life this style of old farm house had either a terracotta or forest green colored tin roof made by overlapping panels of tin. Trying to replicate that has been easier said than done.  However, I am moving towards a solution.  As usual, I have a Plan A, a Plan B and a Plan C. 

Shaping the ridge damaged the paint.

Here is the situation:  I need to make a roof that fits the age of the house.  This will not be a new looking roof in perfect condition.  It needs to be an old metal roof that has rusted, pitted and covered with grime.  The second part of the situation is that the roof needs to have the look of overlapping pieces of roofing, which calls for ridges along the roof.  The scale is so small that it was difficult to come up with something that looks right.  Trying to get those ridges in has been a real challenge.  Fixing the ridge problem has caused problems in the other area of painting the roof.   It is a case of which came first, the chicken or the egg?  I think I have a solution, but it will be easier to explain while I blog about the experiments.  See below.

Small dowels added to create ridge shape.

I purchased some Aluminum Tooling Foil at the craft store.  It looks like aluminum foil, but much thicker.  It is very malleable.  My first experiments were in trying to figure out how to paint the roof to look as I wanted it to look.  I tried different methods.  The first was to paint in blotches of black first and paint the terracotta color over that. The second was to paint terracotta color directly onto the foil.  The third was to paint Gesso on first, then paint.   The next trial was to paint the foil with multipurpose glue and then paint.  And the last trial was to distress the foil with a wire brush before painting to see how paint would settle into the pits and streaks.  Of all the tests, the one that I liked the best was the terracotta paint over the black paint.  The terracotta color is semi-transparent so the black showed up as streaks and blotches.  That will be the base for all the distressing that would come afterward.  I experiment because I only have a general idea of what might work.  I just experiment until I get what I want or find I have to do something else.

So, with a paint choice in mind, I started experimenting with how to make the creases in the roofing material.  The big problem is that most things were too large to be of any use.  I tried folding it over a bone folder tool  and a butter knife, but neither looked right.  The folding tool was too thick and the butter knife left too deep a fold in it.  A rounded piece of wire did not yield the right look.  I make another trip to the raft store and found a tiny, very fragile, square wooden dowel that was only 1/16 inch thick.  After some experimentation, I was able to get an authentic look.  But, when I used a tool to push against the foil to create the shape, the friction scraped the paint off the foil.  Furthermore, once the foil was removed from the shape, it did not look quite as defined as when the dowel was underneath it.  So I decided that the dowel should stay.  I also decided that the roof would have to go onto the house before it was painted in order to keep from damaging the paint job. 

So my Plan A is to cut the roof as one piece of foil, spray paint it with metal primer, and once the roof is shaped over the small dowels it will be painted.  I will have to be careful, but if any of the roof paint gets on the house it can be sanded off and repainted.  The blotchy, peeling paint of the house will hide the repairs easily.

If Plan A does not work, my Plan B is to try to try to use panels of foil rather than shape it from one piece.  I am not sure that this will work very well because it was difficult to get the panel to end at the base of the tiny dowel.  I don't hold out too much hope for Plan B.

If neither Plan A or Plan B work, my Plan C is to just paint over the dowels and the foam core board and make the roof look as good as I can and move on with the diorama.  I think Plan C is going to be the winner here, but I would like to at least give the tin roof a try.  Sometimes you get what you want and sometimes you don't.  You never know until you try.

I have glued small bits of dowel to the roof in preparation for adding the foil sheeting.  I will be working on adding the roof this week.  Check back on Sunday for further progress on the house.  Once the roof is on, the house will be glued to the diorama base.  After that, I will be adding the steps.  Then it will be on to other parts of the diorama.  I have some fun things in store, but they won't be nearly as labor intensive as the house.  At least I hope so.