Bootis Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 Hello all, I’m new to this group and building my first dollhouse, as a Christmas gift for my daughter. I went with a RGT Alison Jr, , but my question would apply to any house I suppose. I’m attempting to achieve an appearance of asphalt shingles, and after some research found several ways I could achieve that- actual asphalt (a little too pricey) , cut sandpaper , card stock sprayed with stone texture paint- I liked the examples I’ve seen of the last one. My question then is, is there any reason I couldn’t simply line up all the shingles that came with the kit flat, and spray them all with the texture paint? Thanks for you input! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sable Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 @BootisYes, you can absolutely do this but there is a process to it. Spray paint blows shingles in every direction so you have to take long strips of blue painters tape and with the sticky side up apply each shingle to the tape. Attach the ends of the tape down to the bottom of a box or board. Then you can spray in short spurts about 12 inches from the shingles since this paint goes on thick. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootis Posted November 11, 2018 Author Share Posted November 11, 2018 Perfect thank you! I wouldn’t have thought to tape the shingles and learned the hard way. Can I get away without dying them if I do this? I don’t want to take shortcuts, but this would save a few days and every day will count to finish by Christmas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 If you're spraying them with stone paint, why would you dye them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sable Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 Since shingles are rarely sealed and dying is not required to seal them, it is not necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sable Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 I just thought of one small issue which will come up...You will have to cut some shingles in half while alternating your rows. That will expose raw unpainted edges. Just use a Sharpie or craft paint the same color as the textured paint and cover those raw edges. Also, paint the wood of the roof a base color first so it blends in with the shingles. You don’t want bare wood peeking through in areas the shingles may not cover completely. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathieB Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 The above suggestions are spot on ... but I'd consider putting the raw shingles on the roof and then spraying the whole roof with the textured paint. You'd have to mask off the walls, etc., to avoid the mist that occurs, but it would be a lot faster than handling each shingle twice -- once to stick to the tape and a second time to glue it to the roof. I would still paint the roof with a similar color to the shingles before gluing them in place. The spray may not go down between them, and even tiny distances between shingles are noticeable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sable Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 Kathie, I thought of that but the problem is that texture paint is very thick. It would eliminate the appearance of shingle separation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fov Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 The advice given in this thread is spot on, but I wanted to chime in and say if time is of the essence, it would be a lot faster to apply the asphalt shingles strips. Gluing on one shingle at a time is very time consuming, not to mention the extra time you'll take to prepare them. Miniatures.com sells them and has a 20% off sale right now, plus they'll have another one over Thanksgiving and might do a bigger discount on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Or you might find better prices on eBay. (I say this having recently finished a one-shingle-at-a-time roof and I'm now working on a roof with shingle strips, the time difference is huge!) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sable Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 Based on what Kathie suggested I experimented with two types of shingles. Notice the left side of the upper ones are oversprayed. But I think spraying them once applied should be fine but you have to do this outdoors. Plus, don’t touch them until completely dry as I did on the bottom set. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 If you have a chopper-type paper cutter you could do your shingles in sandpaper strips; when I want to make mine look more like asphalt I take a chalk pastel crayon and lay it on its side and lightly run it over the sandpaper before cutting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sable Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 38 minutes ago, havanaholly said: If you have a chopper-type paper cutter you could do your shingles in sandpaper strips; when I want to make mine look more like asphalt I take a chalk pastel crayon and lay it on its side and lightly run it over the sandpaper before cutting. Holly, wouldn’t sandpaper be a little rough on small knuckles? Is it hard to clean? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted November 12, 2018 Share Posted November 12, 2018 1 hour ago, Sable said: Holly, wouldn’t sandpaper be a little rough on small knuckles? Is it hard to clean? For little children I'd give the finished roof several coats of clear lacquer. I was wondering the same thing about the stone paint and little knuckles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sable Posted November 12, 2018 Share Posted November 12, 2018 The stone paint is more of a plastic or resin not a coarse stone and once fully cured (about a week) can be washed with soapy water or dusted with a Swiffer. You can’t use a Swiffer duster on sandpaper. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted November 12, 2018 Share Posted November 12, 2018 I use one of those fiber dusters on my houses, then a light vacuuming. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootis Posted November 15, 2018 Author Share Posted November 15, 2018 Great advice here, thanks! I decided for me I’d prefer to use the wood shingles, with the texture paint even though it may take a little extra time. I did a few test shingles using Sable’s recommended method and they came out great. I’m a little nervous spraying them after assembly, so I’ll bite the bullet and spray them all before. I did run into an issue with the edges not really getting adequate coverage which I think would be pretty noticeable, especially on the exposed bottom edges. My solution which seemed to work was to stack all the shingles into little piles of 30 or so and take each stack, flush the edges, and paint the edges darker grey. This didn’t take very long and should hopefully minimize any exposure of uncoated areas. I can touch up the edges of cut shingles Sable mentioned as needed. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted November 15, 2018 Share Posted November 15, 2018 I love a happy ending! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sable Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 The stacking idea was a marvelous idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootis Posted December 26, 2018 Author Share Posted December 26, 2018 (edited) Update- was up till dawn but got the house done in time for Christmas.. (well, done enough to present- I wanted to have finished the inside, but it was easy enough to spin it as that being something we can do together!) a couple of lessons learned: 1- don’t paint the edges of shingles in a pile! It glues them together of course ... sharpie-ing the edges is much better option. 2. Wax paper underneath when spray painting instead of newspaper.. big lesson learned there 3. In the end it was a big hassel to do shingles this way, but they do look really good! Edited December 26, 2018 by Bootis 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted December 26, 2018 Share Posted December 26, 2018 Andy, if my daddy had presented me with a house like that for Christmas I would have thought I'd died and gone to Heaven! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fov Posted December 26, 2018 Share Posted December 26, 2018 It looks great! Nice work! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sable Posted December 26, 2018 Share Posted December 26, 2018 Great job! You’ve got guts spraying that stuff indoors. I personally can’t stand the smell of spray paint. I’m always outdoors with my back against the wind while holding my breath. Then I run for fresh air. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootis Posted December 27, 2018 Author Share Posted December 27, 2018 3 hours ago, Sable said: Great job! You’ve got guts spraying that stuff indoors. I personally can’t stand the smell of spray paint. I’m always outdoors with my back against the wind while holding my breath. Then I run for fresh air. Oh yeah- 4. Spray paint outside or at least in the garage. A rookie mistake we suffered from for 3 days 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wealthywarriormaid Posted December 28, 2018 Share Posted December 28, 2018 It looks awesome! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mid-life madness Posted December 28, 2018 Share Posted December 28, 2018 Good Job! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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