Miniature Builder's Yard: ECW Houses Part 2

 

I know these shots are on the dark side but it's better to highlight the thatching detail. Mucking about with DAS air drying clay is messy and time consuming. I needed to do this in stages. The chimneys needed setting bone dry before moving onto the thatch. There will be a second application of a thatch ridge to cap off the top of the roof and some pre-mixed putty which will be stippled in between the timber framing to texture the walls.

I've mucked about with other thatching methods in the past, all of which are reasonable but nothing looks as good to my eye as the DAS. In doing this, water really is your friend. I taped two cocktail sticks (the round, pointy type) to speed up the pricking at the eve of the thatch. I think I'll even make a cluster or two with them with a drop of PVA to speed it up further.

 

I went with shingles for only one building - one of the long farm-houses. The card stock I used as the base for the roof was on the thin side, which buckled when gluing all the card stock tiles. This is a happy error as the roof looks more irregular which is an effect which I really like. The shed at the end is foam core with balsa planking.

I've only done one thatched roof so far so there are four to go. I have to admit they are a trifle tedious and if this lot weren't the only set I'm ever going to need, I'd have considered making a rubber mold and casting them in resin.

 

By the end of tomorrow (I reckon) they'll be ready for a brush coating of Modge Podge. The last think I must remember to do before that is to either lop the tops of the chimneys on my band saw or sand them flat at the ends.