making roof tiles look like slate

Hi,

My wife is new to the hobby of dolls houses.
She is currently building the roof of her town house and wants to make it
look like slates, but the kit cam with plywood strips that are slotted to
look like indiviual tiles. Teh question is, how do you paint/decorate this
plywood to simulate slate?

Many thanks

Garry & Michelle

Garry & Michelle Widley wrote:
Hi,
My wife is new to the hobby of dolls houses.
She is currently building the roof of her town house and wants to make it
look like slates, but the kit cam with plywood strips that are slotted to
look like indiviual tiles. The question is, how do you paint/decorate this
plywood to simulate slate?

In general, you don't. There are imitation slates (I see them more for
model railroads than dollhouses, but they do exist). Trying to paint
wood to look like stone is a lesson in futility ... yes, eventually you
might get it to work, but it certainly wouldn't be worth the effort.

There are some stone-finish paints available ("Sandstone" from Deco-Art,
for example) that look like rough concrete, but I don't think that's the
effect you're looking for.

For a small amount of slate (enough for about 9 inches) for overlapped
caps on a sloping wall, I used REAL slate - about an eighth of an inch
thick, cut to size with a diamond sawblade on a mini-band-saw. The slate
came from the top of an aquarium tank - circa 1960. It was in our "this
might come in useful some day" collection.

- Herb

Try this with one of the strips to see if you like the effect, Paint/ stain
flat dark gray and drybrush lighter & darker shades and bits of rusty
browns, off-greens, etc, like you sometimes see in real slate. My personal
favorite tip to simulate slate was to do a sort of paper-mache with layers
of torn black construction paper and chalk and seal the "slates" with a
flat-finish sealer.
"Garry & Michelle Widley" wrote My wife is ... currently building the roof
of her town house and wants to make it
look like slates, but the kit cam with plywood strips that are slotted to
look like indiviual tiles. Teh question is, how do you paint/decorate this
plywood to simulate slate?

I used "simulated slate" for my dollhouses. Although they don't look like
real slate, I think they look fairly nice. They're not very expensive (I
don't think) and they come on a strip rather than individual pieces. Real
slate is expensive and can make the house heavy if you need to use a lot.

If you want to email me your address I can send you a sample I had left
over from my houses. For obvious reasons I don't want to post my email addy
here but instead will give you the link to my webmail form and you can
contact me that way. http://www.spminiatures.com/emailform.html

Carol
S P Miniatures
http://www.spminiatures.com


"Garry & Michelle Widley" wrote in message
. ..
Hi,

My wife is new to the hobby of dolls houses.
She is currently building the roof of her town house and wants to make it
look like slates, but the kit cam with plywood strips that are slotted to
look like indiviual tiles. Teh question is, how do you paint/decorate this
plywood to simulate slate?

Many thanks

Garry & Michelle

Herb,
Could the slate be cut any thinner? Is 1/8 in thick in scale (1/12) or
did it look a little thick. Also, how heavy was the roof. I would love to
use real slate but the above concerns me - particularly the weight - as I am
using extremely lightweight construction - aluminum and foam board rather
than plywood.

Pat


"Herb" wrote in message ...
Garry & Michelle Widley wrote:
Hi,
My wife is new to the hobby of dolls houses.
She is currently building the roof of her town house and wants to make
it
look like slates, but the kit cam with plywood strips that are slotted
to
look like indiviual tiles. The question is, how do you paint/decorate
this
plywood to simulate slate?

In general, you don't. There are imitation slates (I see them more for
model railroads than dollhouses, but they do exist). Trying to paint
wood to look like stone is a lesson in futility ... yes, eventually you
might get it to work, but it certainly wouldn't be worth the effort.

There are some stone-finish paints available ("Sandstone" from Deco-Art,
for example) that look like rough concrete, but I don't think that's the
effect you're looking for.

For a small amount of slate (enough for about 9 inches) for overlapped
caps on a sloping wall, I used REAL slate - about an eighth of an inch
thick, cut to size with a diamond sawblade on a mini-band-saw. The slate
came from the top of an aquarium tank - circa 1960. It was in our "this
might come in useful some day" collection.

- Herb

For what we used it for, 1/8" (= approx 1½ scale inches) was just fine,
and it was what we already had on hand. I have no idea what kind of
equipment it would take to slice it thinner - I know that *I*
couldn't/wouldn't want to do it! This was a good scale for capstones on
a fence. For roofing, it should be much thinner, and probably
wedge-shaped. I'm not sure it's possible with real slate - some
alternate product would probably be much more suitable. I've found a
good selection of materials at the better model train supply places.

- Herb

Pat wrote:

Herb,
Could the slate be cut any thinner? Is 1/8 in thick in scale (1/12) or
did it look a little thick. Also, how heavy was the roof. I would love to
use real slate but the above concerns me - particularly the weight - as I am
using extremely lightweight construction - aluminum and foam board rather
than plywood.

Pat

"Herb" wrote in message ...
Garry & Michelle Widley wrote:
Hi,
My wife is new to the hobby of dolls houses.
She is currently building the roof of her town house and wants to make
it
look like slates, but the kit cam with plywood strips that are slotted
to
look like indiviual tiles. The question is, how do you paint/decorate
this
plywood to simulate slate?

In general, you don't. There are imitation slates (I see them more for
model railroads than dollhouses, but they do exist). Trying to paint
wood to look like stone is a lesson in futility ... yes, eventually you
might get it to work, but it certainly wouldn't be worth the effort.

There are some stone-finish paints available ("Sandstone" from Deco-Art,
for example) that look like rough concrete, but I don't think that's the
effect you're looking for.

For a small amount of slate (enough for about 9 inches) for overlapped
caps on a sloping wall, I used REAL slate - about an eighth of an inch
thick, cut to size with a diamond sawblade on a mini-band-saw. The slate
came from the top of an aquarium tank - circa 1960. It was in our "this
might come in useful some day" collection.

- Herb

i was fortunate to aquire a large box of Formica samples at our local flea
market (for free no less!!) These same samples can be found at large home
stores (home depot and lowes) in the kitchen section for choosing countertops.
i had a couple thousand of these cute 2" x 3" samples-but only had 5 (or so) of
each color--thats not good for anything...but on the reverse of the color
samples is an unfinished side. I cut each tile in half with scissors, laid
them out and they look identical to a slate roof!!! Some have brown backs, but
most have slate gray backs--and in various colors too!!! just stop in the
kitchen counter section every time you go to the home store and pickup 10 or so
EVERY time you go and you'll have a collection going before you know it. It
takes couple hundred to do half an average size houses roof.

charlene
Maryland