Weekend Roofing

I took a long weekend off work last weekend, spending Saturday in the company of several Doctors from a certain long running BBC science fiction series, at the Day of the Doctors convention in Slough.

Sunday was some dutiful housework, but Monday I had intended to venture into the garden and make a start on the spring clean up. The weekend prior had been very nice, weather wise, but Sunday never got light and Monday was little better – a few glimmers of sunlight every now and then to tease - but certainly no chance to drag everything out of the shed or attempt to mow the grass.

So I turned my attention back to the haunted house model. Before starting on the new idea for the windows, I wanted to get the roof finished first. However I had to admit that the roof on one tower was not as I would have liked it. That has had to come off, and get reshaped. Extra card glued inside along with an additional round of tiles at the bottom to attempt to get a better fit.

I also found several other areas where tiles did not hang correctly along edges of the various roof sections, so additional remedial work and extra tiles were added in various places. I think building the roof pieces separately and tiling them before putting them on might have been a bad move after all.

Once most of those patch ups were set I turned my attention to the edges of the roof sections, along the joins. I’ve still got some of that solid DAS putty left over from last year, I soaked it down and make it into a thick paste. I then added some PVA glue along the edges and moulded the paste along the gaps, shaping it as I went. I also added some additional shape to the top of the chimneys with the putty.

This has to then be left to dry out completely before anything else is done to the model. The dampness does spread along the cardboard tiles, but if left to dry, this does dry out ok, as I think you’ll see in one of the photos.

Now all I have to do is wait for the rebuilt piece of roof to dry out and then attempt to reattach it. At the moment it’s still clamped up. I seem to be having difficulty finding more of these claps in the local hardware/pound stores where I previous bought them. Somebody has suggested this might have something to do with a recent film release, but I wouldn’t like to comment.

Previous article in the Mystery Model / Haunted House series:

The House is Back

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May Day, Breaking Windows