The build of the station building for Westhill Road continues, since my last Workbench Witterings#18 post here work on the hipped roof and the characteristic chimneys of the mirrored inspiration of Alverstone, for this build.
Hipped roofs, and the gable windows, can be quite complex to work out the correct angles and lengths to cut roof materials to, in my case for this model Wills SSMP211 plain tiles sheets.
There are now online hipped roof calculators that along with a little trigonometry can be used to work out the relevant measurements, but I make use of the trusty pencil and graph paper to draw the roof to the model scale in plan and elevation, I also kept the main hips at 45 degrees to keep things simple, and the cutting dimensions can then be taken straight from the sketch.
Remember to ensure you always cut the sheets the correct way up so that the tiles overlap each other correctly. I always double check using a finger nail feel the upper tiles overlapping the ones beneath it.
The internal support frame is made from off cuts of 40 / 60 thou plasticard, the advantages of keeping the main roof angles 45 degrees makes this frame quite quick and easy to create.
Once the edges of the cut Wills sheets were filed to an acute angle to give the closest possible external edge joint, (but not too critical as these joints will be covered by ridge and bonnet tiles), I started to assemble the roof sections on an internal framing along with fillet sections underneath to strengthen the joints.
I always take time when assembling, letting each joint harden fully before adding the next panel and handling too much, otherwise it will keep trying to return to its constituent parts (don’t ask me how I learnt that…).
Once the roof assembly has fully hardened, very carefully with the the end of the triangular needle file I created what will become the lead lined valleys between the main roof sections and the gable roofs.
The Chimneys, that were quite large, characteristic and overly ornate at Alverstone, were made from Wills SSMP 226 Flemish Bond Brickwork sheets, cut to size and the edges mitred to give a close external corner edge joints.
The unusual sloping tiled decoration was added using offcuts from Wills SSMP211 plain tile sheets. White metal Dart Castings L78B chimney pots, once the inside of the pot was drilled out slightly to ensure they look hollow, were added to complete the look.
The round topped ridge tiles, for the horizontal ridges, along with decorative finials have been added after I sourced the correct style 3D printed versions from Smart Models.
With hipped roofs the angled ridges often used the same style of ridge tile, however many, like at Alverstone, used the more decorative ‘bonnet’ style curved tiles that give a distinctive serrated edge look.
I have not yet been able source suitable bonnet tiles in 4mm scale, and other than trying to make from individual curved tiles cut and folded to shape, I am looking at alternatives and might have a plan, with the help of a friend to draw up and 3D print some suitable ‘bonnet’ tiles, so watch this space…
The small side kitchen extension to the ground floor as also been roofed and gained its more functional less ornate chimney using similar methods.
The next stage externally roof wise, as well the ‘bonnet’ ridge tiles is to add the soffits (the horizontal boarding under the eave of the roof back to the wall) and rain gutters whilst internally the upper floor ceilings will be added to the underside to complete the roof assembly.
The building as a whole still requires furniture to be added to the ground floor living room and the kitchen, the internal room lights added and then painting can commence before glazing the windows.
Further progress will as always be documented in future Workbench Witterings posts,
Thanks for posting Graham. You’ve picked a challenging roofscape to model. I have not come across a chimney to this design in my time, and was intrigued by the detailing. It does look like the upper sloped face of the stack, or cap, is made up of four courses of actual clay tiles. But, a couple of observations: the overall construction of the stack up to this is brick, with 2 courses of brick, each respectively corbelled out about an inch, so overall approximately 50mm. Above that, is the “tiling”, which is likely to have a drip of about the same, so with the thickness of two tiles on a bottom course, an overall overhang from face of main brick stack to edge of tile, about 120mm. The model has perhaps overscaled that dimension, so the volume of the cap is bigger than the prototype. The other observation, is that the chimney pots would be bedded, or flaunched in with hard mortar, in other words there wouldn’t be a recessed area behind the tile cap, rather (in profile) a slope of mortar from the face of the pot to the top of the tile cap. Otherwise it would act as a collector of rainwater and not be weatherproof. Very hard to see that from street level, but in a model very visible. Hope this advice/comment useful. All best, Matt (SWC)
Yes the detailing is both tricky and slightly over scale / a compromise due to the Wills sheet being used. I may still look to try and address this further.