Roofs (Rooves?)

[Keith S]

I've just finished a Brandbright coach, and I have yet to finish the roof. I think I've done a reasonable job of it, some of the decals are a little sketchy but otherwise it's nice and shiny and I managed not to get gluey fingerprints on the windows!

The roof however is still bare wood, because I haven't come up with a decent way to finish it. The other issue I have is the Brandbright coach is causing me to look askance at my other models, which aren't really as nice... but they could be improved a great deal with nicer-looking roofs.

I feel that something other than the plain plastic card roofs of my IP engineering coaches and box vans would look nicer and I would like them to match the roof on my Brandbright coach, however I decide to do that.

Does anyone have a good way of finishing the roof on a coach that looks nice and is somewhat realistic? And perhaps suggest a colour other than white? The white roofs get quite grubby- somehow the dirt created by the steam engine gets onto the roofs.

[Peter Butler]

There is a steam preservation line close to where I live and during a recent conversation with their vintage carriage restorer I was told that roofs were covered with a canvas material and painted with lead based paint or possibly pitch.
To replicate this I use a fine weave curtain lining material stuck to the roof (PVA adhesive will bond to your wooden roof). After painting a suitable colour I liberally cover with a darker colour wash to allow it to fall to the bottom edge where it naturally forms a darker line. Any cross pieces, possibly covering joins in the canvas, also get darker shading with the colour wash.

[MDLR]

These days I use one or two laminations of VERY thin ply (my local model shop stocks it for model aircraft) for the roof - rubber bands hold it in place until the glue has gone off . I then paint it............ with LNER Roof Black - obtainable from Precision Paints.

[Keith S]

Thanks guys,

The Brandbright roofs are two plies of thin plywood, and I did use rubber bands to hold them in place. I suppose I could replace the plastic IP roofs with ply.

Maybe I'll try to attach some of that curtain lining with a contact adhesive for the plastic. If I ruin it I can replace the plastic with wood.

[Peter Butler]

Keith, whatever you do, avoid contact adhesive for this job!
My roofs are all plasticard and the way I fix the curtain lining is to cut them oversize, lay them on the roof and smother with liquid solvent all over. Leave for 24 hours to dry then finish the edges with a fine sandpaper rubbed top to bottom (not sideways). Apply paint, I always use good quality acrylic, and after allowing that to dry, use the colour wash. Even first attempts look good.

[GTB]

Thanks guys,

The Brandbright roofs are two plies of thin plywood, and I did use rubber bands to hold them in place. I suppose I could replace the plastic IP roofs with ply.

Maybe I'll try to attach some of that curtain lining with a contact adhesive for the plastic. If I ruin it I can replace the plastic with wood.

I use laminated plasticard sheet for the roof of vans and pass cars. Since I paint everything with an airbrush, I just paint them with  Humbrol #93 matt enamel and spray it on fairly dry so it ends up dead flat, slightly rough and a dirty ochre colour.

If I was using ply, I'd give it a couple of coats of sanding sealer until the grain disappears then paint it the same way.

VR practice pre-war was to coat the T&G roof boards with paint, then stretch canvas over it, nail it down along the edges with copper nails  and then work in a good coat of a dressing composed of white lead, linseed oil and turpentine ( the real stuff, not mineral turps). It was a buff colour when new, so presumably it also contained some ochre pigment.

The VR applied the canvas longitudinally, probably in a single roll, as there were no visible seams and the dressing went on so thick there wasn't much visible texture.

The NSWR were predictably different and used Malthoid over most of the roof, which meant there were transverse seams at regular intervals and they painted it silver, which rapidly weathered to dirty pale grey. They put canvas the roof ends and applied a coating they called navy dressing, which was basically the same as the VR dressing, just a different shade of ochre.

There were probably as many coatings and colours as there were railways.

The roofs I saw on wooden cars were fairly smooth, certainly no visible cloth pattern. A layer of cartridge paper would look about right for texture and can be applied to polystyrene easily with solvent, or with PVA on ply.


Regards,
Graeme

[Keith S]

Good advice, guys thanks! When you talk about "solvent", do you mean the stuff that people use to join PVC pipes?

[Peter Butler]

Hi Keith, 'solvent adhesive' comes in various guises but is basically the same thing. It is a clear liquid such as 'Liquid Poly' or 'Dichloromethane' (which is my preferred choice) and welds the plasticard to itself or dissolves plastic just enough to bond the material to the roof. The lining material I use has a very fine weave and is not likely to go furry when painted. I'm guessing it is a man-made material rather than cotton? It does give the impression of a scaled down canvas texture and looks much more convincing than just a painted roof. I know there are instances where smooth surfaces are correct so it is not for every occasion.

[Lonsdaler]

Good advice, guys thanks! When you talk about "solvent", do you mean the stuff that people use to join PVC pipes?

That is usually much too 'gooey' Keith, whereas the solvents prepared for modelling are a much thinner liquid. Peter Butler has listed a couple, my preferred brand is called 'Plastic Magic' which as well as sticking the usual plastic cards can also bond to ABS; something I never had much success with when using MEK (methyl ethyl ketone).

[invicta280]

I made a pigs ear of my IP engineering coach roof by gently heating it to hold the shape of a former. It went a different shape altogether

So I made a balsa roof , covering it with stretched fabric from one of the girls' old dresses, fixed with spray adhesive and then sprayed with grey car primer. The result gave a nice texture I think.

[Keith S]

I am glad to hear you're not talking about MEK, I am afraid of that stuff!

My wife is away visiting her parents next week, I'll take the opportunity to get into her closet and find some nice fine-woven cloth for roofs!