Q. Many thanks, am sure my dollhouse finishing days will be made easier with your help. Having four granddaughters, I have done one older dollhouse, now working on the second, then will have a third. I should be quite a pro by then, ha, ha!
Shingles:. With the amount of time and work and cost, I want them to end up as good as they can be. Again, thanks,
A. I suspect all I'm saying you’ve already read in the instructions, but here goes:
Dye or stain your shingles several days ahead of time so they will be completely dry when you are ready for them. Batch dye them, let them drip, then spread them out in a thin heap to dry, stirring them up several times a day. Where the shingles are touching as they dry will be a darker color than where they are in free air, giving a mottled finish which gives texture and interest to the finished product, and is desirable.
Put lines on your roofs before attaching them to the house. one shingle’s length for the first line (1+1/4" for most shingles), 1" for all the rest up to the top (confirm with the Mfg inst.).
Paint your house including the eaves and the edge of the roof before shingling. You may also wish to dye or stain the roof if it is a light color... some gaps are inevitable in shingling, and a stained roof won't show the gaps as much.
Use solvent based panel adhesive (one brand name is "Liquid Nails") which comes in a caulking gun type tube & dispenser.. it's a hardware or building supply store item. Cut just a little off of the end of the tube for a tiny hole (you have to poke a probe (usually a swing out wire attached to the caulking gun near the front) down the nozzle to break the seal between the glue in the tube and the nozzle). "Solvent Based" means it does not have water in it (water will curl the shingles). A solvent-based adhesive will have warnings on the tube about flammibility and ventillation. If there are no warnings or if it says "water clean-up", it will curl the shingles. The YouTube movie in "References" shows hot-melt glue, which is a fine way to go but the high heat always burns beginners (seriously), but the technique shown is the same for panel cement.
Cut shingles with scissors 3/8" long for the first course (a "lifter" course to hold the real first course at the same angle as the rest of the shingles)
Do one course of shingles at a time. Cut the shingles to fit around dormers or other obstructions, keeping the bottom edge of the line of shingles even.
Start every other course with a half shingle so the seams between the shingles will weave back and forth from one course to the next.
If you are shingling a valley, cut a shingle pair at the angle that, when the pair is put together in the valley, the outside edges are straight up-and-down. Cut and attach all the pairs for all the valleys, then finish shingling the Roof.
Cut the top course the right length to leave the second-to-the-top course with a 1" reveal.
Lay a "Ridge Cap" of pairs glued sideways and touching at the peak. Start on both ends and let each pair overlap the preceding pair a little bit. The last pair is in the center of the roof. (this type of ridgecap is called a "Boston lap")
Enjoy your build - let me know any way I can help
