I have been busy on my barn for my eastern european diorama. I would appreciate any comments on the thatching I am doing. This is new to me, and I am pretty pleased. Hope you all like it. There are a couple other pics in my gallery if you would like to have a look.

Thanks again Kevin

Looks good..... I've got a house behind me w/ a thached roof (yes here in the states)

Jack:
Sweet looking house and the roof looks good (I don't live by any thatched homes however). Did you scratch build the house as well? What did you use for the roof? Woodland Scenics?

Thanks for the comments. The barn is scratch built. There are other inprogress pics in my gallery showing its progression to this point. The thatch is just old twine that i unraveled. So far I am pleased with how its taking shape. Any and all comments welcome. Thanks Kevin

I needed a thatched roof for my dio. I tried air-drying clay and oven-baking clay and ended up with tons of rubble. Finally, I used oven-baked clay reinforced with screen inside.
Your method looks great. Remember that the thatching ends up grey, unless it is new. Also, if any can be seen from the inside, the thatch was tied together near one end, like a twig broom and then strung to the rafters.
I'll try to post a pix if I can figure out how. There are two distinct styles of thatching. One has like rows that overlap and the other looks monolithic. Yours is the mono and mine is the lapped. Keep going.

Sealhead (Kansas Sunflower)

Thanks sealhead I could really use a look at those pics. My roof is the over lapped you just cant tell from the angle I took those pics at. If one of your pics is from the inside how the thatch was tied that would be fantastic. Thanks for the input and goodluck getting those pics on here Kevin

You have done a solid build on the house and getting even nicer on the thatching worl. I expect it to be very nice .

i dont know if the europeans did it any differently but in britain, the thatched roofs are very thick, so you may want to add plenty of layers of twine,

looks great though.







see what i mean,

cheers

joe

[moderator action : repaired the image links]

Over here our roofs are as thick like Joe showed us.

I must say I'm impressed with the results so far..... I think it will be a heck of a job getting it all in the right colors later on...pfewww

Impressive Kevin. Please keep us posted.

NB : Joe, I repaired the image links in you post

Hello, And thank everyone for their kind words about this project. I am looking forward and dreading weathering the barn. I would love to make the monolithic roof but i cant figure out how to make it smooth the way it shows in those pic's so I'm going to have to save that for another project. and thanks for the wonderful pics. how thick are the roofs on homes like those?right now the thickness of my roof is about 1scale foot thick.. well this is where I finished at today i still need to trim the strays and get it laying down more evenly but here is a pic and two others in my gallery

Cheers and hope everyone enjoys Kevin

the roofs in britain are usually 1-3 feet thick, but as they are often rethatched several times, i wouldnt worry too much about it,

from what eagle says the eurpoean ones should the the same

btw eagle, thanks

cheers

joe

The expirences I have had with doing scale thatched rooves the twine works well if it is not man fiber made. The stuff i used was natural and the grey green colors that come with age were easily reproduced by using artists ink that was watered down. I would suggest doing some practice runs, to get the coloring to what you desire (start with very small amounts of ink and lots of water some inks are diffrent so a ratio won't be precise say one drop to a half a shot glass). Dip the loose end into the ink solution and by capapilary action it will soke its way up and will continue even after removing it. You don't want to go whole way up, only where it would be exposed to the elements. Since you have already started attatching, a brush against the ends will do nicely. Hope I gave you some inspiration for your thatching, not an expert, but it worked well for me.

If it is a man made fiber and wont take the ink then I would use pastels and then put a light coat of hair spay over it but not too much as you don't want to disturb the natural lay of the thatching. - Good Luck!

Got some reference pics for you of Eastern European barns (mostly Ukrainian), but I don't imagine it would be too much different. Also, oddly enough, the recent "Two Towers" extended edition DVD has a feature on the thatched roof on the Edoras set (The Golden Hall of Rohan). It shows just a bit about how they did it and showed a kind of rope weave they put over the top of it all to hold it down.

It's a very nice piece of work you've got there.

Hello and thank's to everyone for there encouraging words. and thanks for the pics they really help alot and at least im going in the right direction. The twine is indeed hemp. I have never used "inks" to color anything i understand the concept but is there a great range of colors for these inks and where can I find them and who manufactures them? Thanks again for all the input I will keep you posted. Cheers Kevin

The brand names don't really matter, for the inks, but you should be able to find them at Micheals,
Hobby Lobby, or any type of store that sells art supplies but the first two suggestions would be prefered price wise. For the grey color use a "good" black ink like Konica or ink that would be used in a technical drawing pen it has the best density. The colored ink I would just get a green and maybe a brown. They are just simple drawing inks and you should have no problems finding them, if you do contact me and I will see if I can find them somewhere close to you..

Hi jackhammer,
love the thatch.
Found a few sites that might come in useful.
www.rdg.ac.uk - an account on thatching the Globe Theatre.
www.buildingconservation.com
www.thatch.org - this site has loads of info on thatching from materials to method. And has a section on wattle and daube.
Hope they help.
Cheers
Peter

Wonderful thatch job... you might consider getting into the business!

BTW- besides the obvious advantage of low costs and available resources, why are thatch roofs still in use today? Do they hold up well in weather, or provide for superior comfort... I've always been curious. And what about things like bugs... wouldn't hornets and wasps just find it too darn attractive not to build huge nests in the thatch?

Curious....

Hi KFMagee,
they do say.....
thatch is more thermally efficient than shingles or tiles. It reqires a much lighter roof frame and it uses replaceable natural materials and resources. And provides skilled work to rural man power. Lasts up to 60 years approx.
Found the info by "green" surfing.
As for bugs...and fire??? Modern treatments?
Cheers
Peter

Wow! That's longer than a roof built using traditional asphalt shingles. Amazing!

Dear Kevin,

Hope this works.








Sealhead

Wellit partially worked. Check my gallery.

Hello, Once again I want to thank everyone for there comments and input. I picked up a set of artists inks this weekend when I went to the city. Now I just need to figure out how to use them. And thanks to sealhead for posting the pic's on what it should look like from the inside. I see I need to add a few more braces and stitch a bit more with thread to hold it down more realistically. I'll keep everyone posted as I progress. Cheers Kevin

Just take your time with the ink and do a number of trials so you can come up with a water to ink ratio that pleases you color wise, its kind of like using thinned paint washes. Experiment around with the colors a little bit and have fun, I would venture to say once you start playing around with them you will see other applications for them in the future. I have used the browns as stain for wooden floors and furniture.

Have you had time to try the inks yet I am anxious to hear how it is going? I am leaving to go to Florida for a week, so if you have problems I would like to help as soon as possible. I won't be able to check when I'm on vacation.