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Veneer strips for O/S scale shingles?

I really like the look of veneer shingles, but the cost is prohibitive. I'm planning to do 12" long covered bridges, and I'm looking at $40-50 just in materials for the roof. This is not for a model rr application, this would be a standalone item I'd be selling. I don't want to go to paper and I can't have the roof costing that much.

Right now the best plan I can come up with is to get thin veneer strips, cut them and glue em on one at a time. I can get 1/8" or

3/16" wide cherry veneer strips from Lee Valley for a reasonable price. I think I can stack cut them to length on the band saw, I will have to test this. They wouldn't be random width, but that'd make getting them on much easier. Plus being mixed up from different pieces of veneer rather than laser cut from a single sheet is going to look better.

Anything I'm missing? Better ideas?

As it may be of some interest to people, the link for the veneer strips is:

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-Leuf

Reply to
Leuf
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Roof or wall?

Do they still make those flat toothpicks? The blunt end might serve as a round end shingle in smaller scales. In larger scales there's the craft store bulk packs of frozen pop sticks. In between, do they still make wood coffee stirrers?

How about suppliers for doll house construction materials?

Reply to
RobertVA

If you want to vary the style of shingle, you might try Pinking Shears. They will give you a Diamond end shingle. You might also try the various "Scrapbooking Scissors" for other effects.

Reply to
Frank Rosenbaum

Try here. They have cedar shakes that look great.

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10.95 USD for 35 sq inches. They are paper , but you wouldn't believe it by looking at them.

ken

Reply to
Ken Day

Er, uh, in HO they'd be 4 or 5 inches thick - real Paul Bunyan shingles.

Reply to
Steve Caple

Modeling is full of compromises,

Reply to
Mark Mathu

According to the latest MR, one of those is SW-8s in brilliant plasticville colors (the Rock Island red one on the cover flash and the band new Conrail baby blue in the "review" itself.

Reply to
Steve Caple

Gee, must be some HEAVY DUTY toothpicks! They must be closer to kibab skewers. The ones I'm talking about are only about 0.030 thick, which would be in the 2 1/2 inch range for an HO model. You have to make SOME compromises for craft materials to be durable enough for the modeler to be able to handle them. Just how big are the hand rails on a real life locomotive anyway? Even in HO, those are some thick hand rails!

Reply to
RobertVA

Typical molded acetal handrails are around .013", which scales out to just over an inch.

Take a look at some shake shingles for comparison. Paper materials (especially some of the exotic handmade papers) make much more realistic shake shingles. Pick up that lineside shack by the corners of the sides if you find properly scaled shingling too fragile.

Reply to
Steve Caple

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