What would a french farm houses roof be made out of in the 1920's 30's?. I m doing a normandy dio/vignette, well atleast the building, I got so inspired by Mr. DG that i droped production and built me a small house Now all I have to do is finish the roof, and paint!, but back to the question, would it be tile, straw, wood planks? I been trying to find some pictures in the few WWII books that I have but with no success.
Thanks

Anders,
I will put in my 2cents (even though I have never even stepped over the big pond yet).

Location, location, location! I think that pretty much anything is possible unless you are building a dio of a particular region or are using a particular base material for the walls. My guess would be many houses at that time would be wood shingles, tile, thatch or slate(?).

If the house has a really dated period look I would go with a thatch roof. Only because to me they really look cool.

Now hopefully some real French or Belgium members will offer their advice. Lol

Jim

Jim..
whats a thatch roof?
The walls are made out of wooden planks for now, might "plaster" them if thats more accurate.

Anders,
Thatch is ussually straw or some other plant material that can be weaved or strung together to form a moisture barrier. I found this interesting link on early French Canadian homes, might be useful.

http://www.umsl.edu/~mga/Qweb/ruralfet.htm

Good luck with the dio. Take pictures while you build!

Jim

Jim,
Thanks for the link.
Im not quite sure how to go about making that straw roof...would be tricky as hell Id think.
I thought about taking some pictures while I was building the little house, its only the corner of it and has a window. It went to fast and was 100% unplanned to take pictures of. I can make another one to do that in the future. I already have the paratrooper and german prisoner done!! its 54mm btw :-)

Thanks again Jim!!

I think that your best shot for normandy would be tiles... probably the brick red ones.
Now, if you get closer to britany and to the coast, you might find tiles made of stone
(dark gray), with a flat shape.
There's a friend of mine who used to study in Caen. I'll dend him an email to ask.
I'll try to post a better answer in a few days.

good luck:-[]

penpen

Hi Anders,
Just read a good article on Custom Dioramics and there new production of curved tiles and Straw roofs! Go to them and enjoy!
Oh and i don't know how to do a link so you'll have to go yourself!
If you can't find it shout me and i will scan and mail it to you! Good luck

Good question to Jim.....how do you do a link?

Marek & Tread,
There is a lot of useful info on that in the Postboard FAQ (link is on the footer of the forum pages).

BBCode Info

Jim

There's a company from eastern europe (probably mirage, but I'm not sure)
that sells cheap vac-formed roofs. They look pretty nice.
I've already seen the curved tiles kind.
So as to straw, easy : cut a broom !

penpen

Kool, but how do I attatch all the bristles together after I've cut them?

Here is a method inspired by the real life method. But I havent tried it yet...

Choose a straw like broom. Usualy it's the cheapest !
Before cutting the bristles, attach them together in small bundles.
size of the bundle in real life : make a circle with your arms... well, it should be between that and half of that... beware, that bundle should flatten itself once laid on the roof.
It should be approx man long, perhaps only 3/4 of that...

First you make a roof out of thin cardboard. Then you lay down your bundles, starting at the bottom of the roof. the string should be on the top. beware to hide the cardboard well !
A second layer comes a bit higher, covering the top of the first layer (I wonder if I'm very clear...). It might be better if you hide the string on the first layer that way.
And there you go up to the top !
Then, after that good day's work in the sun, you may serve youself a good glass of red whine. Sorry, am I getting distracted ?

This method should work right on rather small and poor houses. it wouldn't be logical in a more "developped" town like Caen or Falaise...

Hope this works, and sorry for that long thread.

penpen

Sorry, just a precision : the result must look very flat ! So the bundle method may not be so fine...
Take a look at this site, there are a few pics : http://chaume.habitat.online.fr

hope it helps

penpen

I just recently completed a viginette of a wwII German rest stop in a Normandy farm courtyard. The roofettes and wall top tiles I did in red to simulate tiles or painted corrigatted
tin. I used the plastic tray from a bag of cookies, cut to fit, glued with white glue only and painted, washed and weathered. Is very effective and easy to use.
photos are comming very soon.
happy modeling,
russ

I just came across this web page and got reminded to this thread...

check this out:

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~firestorm1/catalogue/Aus_Cat/046.htm

seems exactly like what you need......

Dear Anders,
'cause of Jim Failure with this reply again the link how to make franch roof tiles....
Just clik to : http://clik.to.demodelbouwer and then clik on the topic tips and tricks and then on the button " dakpannen " . The pictures will tell you the story...
( note ) in stead of copper foil you can use also lead foil...

Eric

Maxpain and Eric,
Thanks for the links, Im going to use the techniqe used with the lead foil, it seems easy and cheap! And Its always more fun building it then making it!
Thanks again!