Medieval Gates 6 - Roofs and Pigments

Painting of the roofs has been covered in a previous article. Below a quick photo progression.

Paints :
Raw Unmber  (Dark Brown)
Earth Brown (kind of a mud brown)
Pumpkin (kind of Orange)
Tan  (creamy color)

Black Primer on new roofs with finished example to work towards.

Black Primer over all surfaces

Dark Brown - Drybrushed from top to bottom

Muddy Brown applied by drybrush from top to bottom (right) and pumpkin applied (left)

Very light drybrush with Tan in every direction to catch the edges.

Although the dry-brushing has resulted in a good colour, the finish is too uniform. We need to apply some washes to the roof to give more tones. Finish in a light dry-brush to catch all the edges.

Multiple dabs of diluted wash applied at random over whole roof.

The wood parts of the roof can be done at the same time using the same progression of colour, or some other colour scheme as required. I chose to keep the wood a bit darker so skipped the mud brown and pumpkin steps, instead going for dark brown and directly over that with tan to bring out the grain detail. Washes applied to taste to vary the wood colour.


In order to give the roof some additional character, some lichen spots are added. This is done with pigment sticks. These can be bought from any art supplier and are cheap. 

A box of pigments will last almost forever and is a great investment

Plenty of colours to choose from to get the desired effect.

I used greens, reds, yellows.

Natural colours for lichens and moss.

To adhere the pigment to the roof it needs to be sprinkled into alcohol or Matt varnish.
Dab some alcohol or matt varnish into spots on the roof. I find matt varnish works best as it is sticky and does not dry too fast.

Using the back side of a scalpel blade or other sharp strong edge, scrape the pigment off the stick at a corner so it falls in a shower of pigment dust onto the wet spots.
Add a few more wet spots and repeat with a different colour pigment.
Mix and match the pigments over the roof to get the desired effect. Random variations work best.

Matt Varnish dabbed on and pigment dusted on top.

Allow everything to dry, then spray with a matt varnish to hold everything in place. An airbrush is ideal for this.

Here are the finished roofs. 

End woodwork pushed towards red colour with pigment.

Medieval Gates 5 - Realistic Roofs

Following some positive comments on my tower roofs, here are some more details on making them. This time I have written down the dimensions so I remember them in the future.

Written dimensions enable multiple copies of the same part.

The dimensions are taken from the card tower. Roof support works made from balsa wood. 

Balsa wood is cut to outline size ensuring grain direction is correct.

The balsa wood is cut so the grain runs in the right direction....i.e up and down. Then the wood is cut to final size. Two end eave pieces , two sides. 

Final sizes are cut using a scalpel

The eave pieces are scored to represent wooden strips. 

End pieces are scored to represent individual boards

This was done using the sharp end of an awl. 

An awl with point is a great tool for scoring.

The wood surfaces were scored to represent wood grain.

Run a wire brush in the grain direction to get fine grooves in the balsa wood.

The fine grain was done with an old wire brush, brushing in the grain direction. The grain is very fine and may not be immediately visible but it will take stain well and darken in all the grooves. The side pieces are glued to the eave pieces. Make sure to glue the sides outside the eaves and not the other way round. 

A wire brush with fine wires is best...get one at a modelling shop.

The roof is made from 1 mm card cut to size. 

Simple sketches are easy to follow.

The card roof is scored partially so it can be bent.

A shallow score allows the roof to be bent to follow the required slope.

Glue thin strips of 1mm card to the edges of the roof. Strips are about 1mm wide. They act as a support for the first row of shingles so the angle matches all the other rows and ensures the shingles sit flat. The card roof is glued to the balsa wood support centering it as best as possible by eye.

Adding card strips ensures the shingles will go on easily with correct slope.

The tiles (shingles) are also made from 1mm card. The main tiles are 10mm wide. The top row is smaller, 8mm wide strips.

Tile (single ) sizes are a matter of taste....try until happy.

Cut plenty of strips of each.  You will need about 6 times the bigger shingles than smaller shingles. 

Cut each strip using a scissors getting random sizes .

Cut plenty of strips and create a stock of card shingles.

Put the stock shingles into separate bags and label for future use.

Assembly of the shingles onto the roof support is covered in another earlier blog entry. 

Glued on shingles really add to the realism of a roof.

The ridge tiles are approx 10mm x 10mm. Before gluing to the apex of the roof, form the tiles around a small radius. I use the barrel of the awl.

Ridge tiles can be added overlapped or butted to one another.

Painting of the roof was covered in an earlier blog but I might repeat it in more detail later.

Till next time.

Medieval Gates 4 - Tower Roofs

Once the black spray primer is fully dry (24 hours to be sure) then the real painting can begin. 

The end colour is to be some sort of a wood colour but to be honest is is a bit of trial and error. I will work up from dark brown to almost white. 

The first colour is raw umber. This is dry rushed from ridge to eaves down along the length of the shingles. The brush is a half inch artist brush. The dark brown is hardly noticeable over the black. Leave the black in the recesses.

Hit the woodwork around the roof also. 

Start with Dark Brown

Next up is a dry rush of earth brown , making sure the original layers are dry. Make sure the brush is really dry before brushing. Woodwork as well.

Move to lighter brown, drybrushing from ridge to eaves

Next dry brush a tan colour. Keep going with the woodwork too.

Drybrush lighter tones.

The roof is changing colour nicely but is still a little uniform. Use washes in brown, yellow and green to add variations to individual shingles.

Washes are needed to add variation. Add a little at a time.

Wash the woodwork too.

Washes can be added in layers giving darker and darker effects

Finish off with a light dry rush of bleached bone over all edges.

Finished roof below.

Drybrush the lightest tone in all directions to catch all raised edges.

The roof looks good on the tower.

Finished roof on tower.

Next time maybe I can do the wood a slight different colour to the shingle to separate the two elements.

One side of the gate.....looks good.

All in all I am very happy with this roof. Now only to make one for every tower.

See you next time.

Medieval Gates 3 - Wood Beams

Next step is a couple of sturdy wooden beams at the front of the gate wall. These are made from balsa wood. The wood is cut to size but needs to be distressed to represent a well used and weathered wooden post. A wire brush and scalpel are idea tools for this task.

Basic tools can add effects to balsa wood.

Run the wire brush up and down in the direction of the desired wood grain. Do all four faces of the post. Do the ends of the post as well. 

Distresses (top) vs new (bottom)

The post will also benefit from having a few chips taken out of the corners to simulate wear. Use a scalpel to chip away the corners.

Chipped (bottom) vs no chips (top)

The beams are painted in brown ink, brushed on with a small paint brush. Once dry a very thin wash of black ink was added to better define the grain.

Painting on wood stain by brush can lead to some desired variation in colour.

The beams are to have big cast iron bolts securing them to the wall. Those can be formed perfectly at miniature scale by using fishing split leads. Cut each lead in half through the split line using a scalpel. 

Fishing leads are cheap and widely available

Test fit the position of the bolt heads and put a small pencil mark where the bolts will go.

Putting the cut fishing leads on the wood implies bulk and the need for bolts.

Once the wood stain is dry dry brush a selection of greys over the post, starting with darker grey and working up to the lightest grey. Once the dry brushing is dry, finish off with a few washes of Browns, flesh tones, yellow etc. This will give a little variation to the post colour.

Glue the posts to the outside of the gate wall. 

Why are these beams outside the gate....who knows ?

In order to allow the gates to be open or closed and to avoid having to use any complex hinge system, the doors were mounted onto a thin piece of clear plastic. This will allow the doors to stand unaided in any position required.

Clear plastic stands are almost invisible when the model is viewed.

The plastic is a hardly noticeable once the doors are standing. Great for replacing a good door with a door ruin if the game explodes in the doors.

The doors can be exchanged for other opening fillers as required.

That's it for now. Check back again for the next post.

Medieval Gates 2 - Buttresses

I forgot to show the construction of the underside of the roof pieces so here are a few pics. Note the scored eaves wall....this is just a sharp point scoring the balsa wood to form planks.

Roof Detail..primed and unprimed

The balsa form is just glued to the card roof....I needed to use contact adhesive here as the PVA glue was not holding.  The end pieces are glued to the card roof but the two side pieces are glued more to the end pieces with only a small bead of glue affixing to the roof. This is because there is not much contact area between the sides and roof....it only contacts along one edge due to the roof slope.

Underside of Roof

Contact adhesive is cheap and cheerful from Lidl.

contact adhesive...apply to both surfaces, let get tacky, stick together

Moving on....tonight is about the buttresses. First I printed out the Dave Graffam paper skin. Then measured out the dimensions of the card former I would need taking into account the thickness of the card used. The patterns are cut from the paper sheet using a scalpel and the backs scored along the appropriate lines to ease folding. Each crease was folded so the paper takes the shape of the final pillar.

Typical printed page from Dave Graffam Card Models

The buttresses formers were made in two halves. Each a right angle piece.

Forms made from 1.5mm artist card

The angle was ensured by gluing in a right angle former...i.e.  a Lego corner.

Lego makes a great right angle corner

The glue used was PVA adhesive brushed onto one piece with a small paintbrush. Try to keep the glue on the card on not smeared onto the Lego corner.

Plastic clamps are invaluable to hold things together while glue dries

Once the pieces had dried a little, they were removed from the former so any smeared glue did not dry onto the Lego. Any glue blobs were brushed with the small paint brush. The two pieces were glued together to form the full buttress. A small piece of card was added to the top and bottom to close out the pillar and to ensure the paper skin has a surface to glue to. This all takes time but ensures a strong finished part.

Glue parts together and add end cap

End caps on all boxes give a surface to glue the paper to.

Finally he paper skin was glued to the pillar formers. The finished parts just need any white paper edges touched up with a dark marker or paint to hide the seams.

Making square forms ensures the paper wraps squarely around the parts.

The buttresses will finally be glued into the corners between the wall and tower.

Adding butresses mimics real walls where they add support.

Putting butresses into corners gives additional strength.

See you all next time.