Looking forward to build some fantasy/ historical houses in the near future, I decided to dedicate a small tutorial on my go-to techniques to craft roof tiles for miniature tabletop wargaming terrain.
What method I’d use highly depends on the project, the prominence of the terrain piece, and (mostly) my motivation.
Method 1: cardboard roof tiles
The easiest and fastest way to get your tiles on a roof is to use overlapping cardboard strips. Cereal package-style cardboard works best in my opinion.
First, cut the cardboard sheets into strips of 1,5 – 2cm (fig. 2) and cut some incisions into the strips (fig. 3). The cuts don’t have to be regular, and I usually eyeball them.
Once done, the strips can be glued to the roof, starting with the bottom row working your way up. Depending on the size of the roof you may either trim the strips or combine them for extra length. Make sure to overlap the rows properly (fig. 4).
For the final (upmost) row, I usually use slightly folded cardboard, as shown in the example picture (fig. 5).
A note on cardboard: if you use cereal box cardboard or something similar, make sure to have the grey, no-colored side showing outwards. The outside of the box usually has some “plasticky”-quality and won‘t take paint very well.
Method 2: styrofoam roof tiles
The second method is similar in spirit to the previous one. But instead of cardboard, we use styrofoam-strips to craft the roof tiles for our tabletop wargaming houses. Minor caveat: You need a hotwire cutter.
After crafting some tabletop terrain with styrofoam, I usually have plenty of leftover pieces to harvest some roof tiles from. Thus, this is a perfect opportunity to recicle some apparently useless styrofoam bits.
Prepare a 1,5 – 2cm thick block of stirofoam (fig. 6). From this block, we will later slice off several strips of styrofoam roof tiles. I usually tend to roughen up the side of the block, which, afterward, will be the bottom of the roof tile strip. (fig. 7).
Turn the hotwire temperature down and carefully “melt” the incisions into the styrofoam-block, mimicking the individual roof tiles (fig. 8). This step involves a lot of cursing and cussing…
In a final step, we use the hotwire cutter again to slice strips of styrofoam roof tiles from our block. I generally aim for 1+ mm thickness (figs. 9, 10). Similarly to the cardboard, the roof tile strips need to be arranged in an irregular fashion (fig. 11).
Being able to texture the styrofoam (as you may see in the example picture fig. 12) is a major advantage of styrofoam.
Method 3: fancy cardboard roof tiles
This last method is actually my preferred, but I rarely use it : individual cardboard roof tiles glued one after the other onto the roof. As you would do in real life. Rather straightforward.
In my opinion, they have the best visual effect, especially on fantasy and historical terrain. It is tedious, takes for ever, but roofing a house in that fashion has something soothing and meditative.
Happy crafting 🙂