Roofies: Tar Paper, Corrugate, or Shingle?

Our barns back during the Depression were re-roofed as well as our grainery, blacksmith shop,corn crib,etc, with "roll roofing" over tar paper. Roll roofing was as heavyweight and as cheap as the lowest grade shingles. The house got regular 3-rib tin (if it started leaking). I used masking tape as roll roofing on my enginehouse.  36"(3/4") showing on 7/8" tape.

My unfinished Lumber Shed got HO scale corrugated roofing.

Builders-In-Scale product.  

Tar paper is done with black craft paper and  Elmer's glue. 

Tab Shingles are a  BTS product Bill's Train Shop.   Additional pictures of tar paper roofing. 

Mr. Fish,

I am an evergreen guy when it comes to corrugated roofing materials.

I have done both on my Models.  I use the masking tape-rolled roofing a lot.  On the corrugated roofing I find some of the o scale sheets look out of scale for me, and I sometimes use ho scale sheets.   I use the JTT sheets.

Builders in Scale for metal roof either corrugated or standing seam; both are available in various sizes.  Metal roofing that I have put on sheds, etc. in 1:1 has been 3' wide by varying lengths - width is pretty set, but you can buy length from 8' to whatever they will make for you.

Tar paper; roll shingle - usually 3' or 4'. 

Thank you forumites for all the information and advice.  Always grateful for the input.

I was more interested in what sizing to use for appropriate scale fidelity in my build.  I already have experimented with different producers of corrugated roofing and am confident with all the suppliers of material.  Typically I manufacture from scratch whatever I use. My question concerns what size to cut for prototypical accuracy.

For instance my limited research online shows that standard 1:1 scale tar paper roofing comes in rolls with a width of 36 inches.  Based on my calculations three feet would equal 0.75 inches in 1:48 scale.  

What would be a standard prototypical sizing for the corrugated aluminum sheets used in construction?  Is three feet the most commonly used width as Martin pointed out in his response?  

bfishma1 posted:

Thank you forumites for all the information and advice.  Always grateful for the input.

I was more interested in what sizing to use for for appropriate scale fidelity in my .  I already have experimented with different producers of corrugated roofing and am confident with all the suppliers of material.  Typically I manufacture from scratch whatever I use. My question concerns what size to cut for prototypical accuracy.

For instance my limited research online shows that standard 1:1 scale tar paper roofing comes in rolls with a width of 36 inches.  Yes, note:  There would be a 4" overlap of two pieces of paper, with a tar sealant (pictured).   Based on my calculations three feet would equal 0.75 inches in 1:48 scale.  A little less with paper overlap.  Often the paper hangs over the edge of the roof.   Paper applied with ample white glue, trim with scissors when dry. 

Another look at tar paper on the flat porch roof area.  A roll of roof paper is just so long,  ??  may be 30 ft??  Google search, show 30 lb paper, rolls 36" X 72 ft. As pictured, probably not correct, sorry.  

Smaller porch roof.

 

What would be a standard prototypical sizing for the corrugated aluminum sheets used in construction?  Is three feet the most commonly used width as Martin pointed out in his response? Three feet is a good number.  There would be over lap of at least one flute side to side.  What ever the corrugated sheet lengths are.  I used lengths that worked the roof with three pieces.  The pieces would be staggered by 1/2 piece each horizontal row, so that vertical seams were not the length of the roof.   Roof ridge cap was done with a small piece of paper painted silver.   

 This Korber model (Quincy Machine) had slightly larger roof sheets, (Plastic), I pre-painted the sheets to show an age-ing rust. 

Shake shingles I have made for some of the buildings I have.  Cut from thin Basswood. Very tedious, but I think it looks good.  The shingles are painted with acrylic paint.  I file a bevel onto each shingle with a cheap nail file so the next shingle above lays flat on the shingle below.

Here is a view of the roof on my switch tower and station.

Steve

More great advice and pics to boot!  Grateful as always for the information.

I'm leaning towards tar paper roofing for the barn but I really dig the shingles.  As far as the corrugated roofing goes, three feet seems to be an agreed upon width.  How long would each sheet be?  Based on crude eye-balled measuring from the pics posted here it seems to be between 6 and 8 scale feet.

Thank you again to all who have weighed in ...

bfishma1 posted:

More great advice and pics to boot!  Grateful as always for the information.

I'm leaning towards tar paper roofing for the barn but I really dig the shingles.  As far as the corrugated roofing goes, three feet seems to be an agreed upon width.  How long would each sheet be? Sheets could be order in special lengths, Seldom would you see a roofer cut corrugated sheets. Based on crude eye-balled measuring from the pics posted here it seems to be between 6 and 8 scale feet. Good choice. 

Thank you again to all who have weighed in ...

Standing seem metal roofing different. Sheets would be one length, eve to ridge cap. 

bfishma1 posted:

More great advice and pics to boot!  Grateful as always for the information.

I'm leaning towards tar paper roofing for the barn but I really dig the shingles.  As far as the corrugated roofing goes, three feet seems to be an agreed upon width.  How long would each sheet be?  Based on crude eye-balled measuring from the pics posted here it seems to be between 6 and 8 scale feet.

Thank you again to all who have weighed in ...

Depends a little on era.  More modern they might be cut to full length as needed.  Earlier, maybe 8' or 12'.  Last time I did a metal roof I was using 12' because that was what could get delivered and also because I had ~ 22' of roof to span giving me a nice 2' overlap.

More recent roof on the house had all the metal roof custom cut to full length so no seams from top to bottom.

Shakes - I've never bothered to cut my own and have used the nice shake shingles from Evergreen Hills or Builders in Scale. I have a bunch of old oak veneer that I was toying with using for these but have never bothered..............yet.

I decided to go the tar paper route, trying my best to heed the advice on spacing and overhang.  Went with First Aid Paper Tape as it has a realistic knap to it and the added advantage of a sticky side.  You can find this just about anywhere or if you're disaster prone might even have some lying around for your roofies.

Once I had the tape applied, cut the edges flush, and test fitted the removable section I went ahead and applied sever washes of diluted white glue and ink mix.  Not only did the multiple coats give a good initial base color, but this made a thick tar like sealant also ensures that the tape sticks and might even eventually provide some structural support once hardened.

Pretty happy with the results.  As always some areas for improvement, but made much easier with the sound advice provided here.  Thanks to all who weighed in.