There are so many methods and techniques to adding roofing material to your structure build and we here at HO Scale Customs have yet to try them all. But we are working on it! Roofing is something we have written articles about many times already and we consider a specialty of ours. Not that we are necessarily great at them, just that we love the vastly different options available in appearance. Rich, deep texture, and a wide variety in colors provides the observer of your creation an eye catching experience. When you add weathering you bring even more realism into focus. In many cases on structures, one of the first place the eyes train is the roof.
THE NEED FOR SOMETHING UNIQUE
On our recent prototype scratch build of the Historic Shiplap House in Annapolis Maryland our structure, to be true to that prototype would need a shake shingle roof. In this hobby most modelers use the laser cut paper shingles so often found in kits and available separately through a plethora of vendors. They are fine and we have built a lot of great structures using them, however we were looking for something a bit more authentic to this particular build and decided upon making our own real wood shake shingles following an instructional video found online. So off we went to AC Moore and bought a thin sheet of scale hobby plywood. A bit thick for what I had in mind, and I was apprehensive about using it, but I could not find veneer in any of the Big Box Hardware stores, let alone anyone who worked at these places that knew what veneer was…..much less a hammer.
When I got home with it, I was just about set to begin making shake shingles as per the video, when I was contacted by Kenny Crump of KC’s Workshop about something unrelated and I mentioned what I was about ready to do and that I could not find any veneer to do it. Kenny told me he had some and has been wanting to try laser cutting veneer shake shingles and experimenting with the possibilities of offering them through his site. He offered to make some for me to try on the Shiplap, (he had already helped custom laser cut our brick walls for it which turned out amazing) and within a few days I had them on my workbench ready to go. 
TO STICK OR NOT TO STICK! IS NOT REALLY A QUESTION
He had made two versions. One with adhesive backing that you just peel and stick, and another type with out. They came with approximately 32 rows of shingles on a sheet 8″ x 5″ (inches). They are indeed on wood veneer and have the color of a golden honey oak. I thought this to be perfect. It is wood toned and great if you want to leave it that shade, and light enough to darken with stains or washes to get a darker, richer tone without taking away from the desired shade. If the original wood is too dark, then staining them to your desired shade can be a nightmare to achieve. With the golden oak, whatever stain you use is generally what you get. But this would be a final step, so let’s put that in the recesses of our minds…..for now.
Well obviously I started with the easy method of installing these shingles to my main roofs and dormer roofs using the adhesive. Why not? They are ready to go! We also tried the shingles with no adhesive and they worked great as well using contact cement or Walther’s Goo.
TIME TO PLAY ROOFER
So I began at the bottom of the roofs edge working upward row by row. The first advantage of these over paper shake shingles became instantly apparent. Cutting each one to fit was easier by far. Being wood they are naturally firm enough that you can place them on the roof prior to peeling the backing and marking your cut lines. Particularly around odd nooks and crannies like dormers, eaves and chimneys. Anywhere there is an odd angle. It is easy to get a precise cut, especially if you have to cut angled pieces. With paper strips it flops all over the place and moves or bends, which makes it more difficult to get exacting edges. So when I cut, then peeled then stuck them to the roof, I had nice even rows across the roof without ever having to draw lines with a pencil to guide and everything fit in sweet!
I did run into one issue with them when I began. Working with a long 
solid strip is fine to do, and easy to control, however you must peel the backing off the adhesive SLOWLY and gently. Otherwise you risk the shingle from that tension of a quicker pull to break the strip. Easy fix. Do it slow, and as you pull with one hand, hold your tweezers tip to the shingle close to where the backing is lifting and keep shifting the tweezers along to follow it. It is an easy process that you can master in a minute or less. Yes they break if you don’t. But remember, this is very thin wood, so it would do this naturally, silly. Once you quickly figure out how to handle it, you will sub-consciously just have that gentle feel and touch. It truly is a breeze to adhere, and they adhere fantastic. I had no issues with shingles wanting to come loose as I worked.
Now as I worked my way up the roof, I realized advantage number t
wo. Definition and Depth. Paper shingles work fine, but they are after all paper, and will only ever build up as high as two layers of paper as we overlap half way on each row. Yes you can see the separation of the shingles, but until you lift a few edges with a tool, you have flat paper on your roof. Plus you have to adhere most paper shingles with a glue or onto a rooftop prepared with 3m transfer tape, which we do swear by using, expect in this case. Glues can get messy. And if you peel your transfer tape off as you go up too early and over-handle the structure trying to get strips to line up, you will lose some adhesiveness. Or I do because I’m impatient and at times we can get sloppy. Here there is none of that. Just peel stick, peel stick. And as you work your way up, one thing will smack you dead in the face. The real wood shingles are a tad thicker than paper, and they lay down in rows with complete definition. You can see all edges of each shingle plainly and it just shows amazing depth and realism.
When you get to the top of your roof on both sides, simply cap the roof with some paper of a similar shade (hint: I used unprinted brown paper from a 
big roll I found at walmart in the painting section that has the same color and thickness of a brown paper grocery bag) that is cut in strips about 1.5 scale feet by 2 or 3 scale feet. and over lap each going across the peak using just a bead of wood glue. This shade cap provides you with the same coloring if you plan to stain or use washes to the shingles. Don’t make each cap look precisely uniform. Wood shake shingles are often custom cut by hand (or used to be at one time) and would often vary on edges.
LET”S COLOR THESE BAD BOYS
As I said above. The natural color of the wood veneer shingles is beautiful on its own, but if like me you needed to have a darker shade, the shingles are easy to stain or paint with washes, and because they are wood and not paper, the thickness keeps the stains and paints from disturbing the adhesive underneath. In our Shiplap House we made a wash of 50/50 acrylic craft paint and water using five different colors. Raw Umber, Khaki, Mississippi Mud, Asphaltum, and Soft Black (brands I used were Americana and Folk Art). In the order above, one color at a time I employed a variation of the dry brush method, dipping my brush into the wash and dabbing it on a sheet of cardboard or papertowel until you remove some of the wetness from the brush, but not all the paint. This saps out any excessive water in the wash, but allows some to remain to keep the paint thinner. Also it keeps your shingles from
becoming soaked yet covers the wood evenly. So, starting with the dark raw umber I primarily colored the entire roof and dormer roofs with the wash in brush strokes top downward on the roof, but not so thick or wet that we saturate. Just a stain. Let this first color dry for a few hours and it will add a base layer that sort of seals the wood to prevent the following shades to come. With the remaining colors, in order, use the same brush strokes downward but make them shorter and random. Allow each to dry before beginning the next. Usually 20 to 30 minutes because you are essentially dry brushing now removing more wash from your brush prior to applying. You can keep adding the shades randomly and going back to where you want lighter or darker to whatever you desire. You really can’t screw this part up if you take your time. Start light, stay light with those brush strokes!
WE AIN”T SISKEL & E
BERT, BUT WE GIVE THESE A BIG FINE SCALE FREAK THUMBS UP
To wrap this up…I loved everything about these wood veneer shake shingles. KC’s Workshop sent them to me to test out and let him know how they worked and never asked for a review or a public endorsement. Nor would we give one for any vendor or kit manufacturer if their product was not in our opinion a quality product. We call it like we see it. And these shingles are the best shingles I have used to date and provided a very detailed dimension that we feel improves quality. If you want to step up the game and do so easily, this is an awesome idea!
Last I spoke with KC’s they were considering offering them on their website https://kcworkshop.com/
And I imagine it will likely be coming soon if he does, so check back. We will be ordering them for our own supply when available.
