The Leaky Cauldron....Roof and Attic

I have been working on the main roof of The Leaky Cauldron this week. I chose conker roof tiles from Richard Stacey which I thought would be a good choice for the Tudor feeling of the building. They are much brighter than I expected but after washing them and adding moss etc I hope they will not stand out quite so much. I do like the textured effect of them, looking well worn.

 They were very easy to cut and shape, using my razor saw or simply sanding with an emery board. I usually use PVA for this sort of job, the brand that comes in a brown bottle, but for some reason I have a huge bottle of Elmers Glue-All, so I used this instead.

This was not a good choice. It was much too thin and the tiles tended to slip around a bit so you had to keep an eye on them and push them back into place every so often.

 I also thought about letting the odd tile slip for effect and even tried to curve the tiles in order to make the roof more interesting but decided this would have to wait until I am brave enough to try making my own paperclay tiles.

 This one edge will need some ridge tiles which I forgot to order so I will wash the roof with shades of grey to tone the whole thing down and by that time the ridge tiles should arrive.

My Diagon Alley project has a corner shop at each end and they will be decorated in the same style externally.

The main look I will be hoping to achieve will be like many old high streets in England. Very old shops which are inter-mixed with other more recent styles, or replaced completely in places. So my high street will have a mix of Tudor, Victorian and Georgian influences. I am thinking that all the upper levels will maintain their Tudor heritage while the shop fronts will have been 'modernised' at some stage.

That's the plan anyway!

 The washes have been added to the tissue attic and I am really pleased with resulting look. The tissue, despite being soaked in PVA/water mix, soaked up the wash which was fine as my dirty brushes water, thank you Sabs for that fabulous tip, was a little too dark. I have now added two washes one dark brown based, from painting wood, and one dark grey based, from washing the roof tiles. 

Extra wash in the corners and along the edges where dust and dirt build up more. 

These photographs make it look quite clean still but it actually looks much more grungy and dingy.

The little loft hatch in place for anyone wanting to brave the dust and the mice! 

You can probably see there are small white areas, these are where the tissue base was not applied thickly enough and when I added the washes the tissue broke up a little bit.

Tip for next time - build up the tissue base all over...

But I have left the little patches as the floor and walls will eventually be hidden by junk and other dust effects. No need to be too picky when there is so much still to be added.

Pouring with rain here and so grey. Definitely a good day to be playing with my toys!