Tar paper roofing tips

When I started this blog I promised to offer some tips in addition to project updates. I haven't lived up to that promise have I. Some number of tips are sprinkled across all posts but only one post so far exclusively dedicated.
Here are some tar paper roofing tips. They come from my experience and reflect my opinion. Your mileage may vary.
1. Don't use Polyscale paint to paint paper. It has some kind of binder that makes paper stiff and hard to work with. Plus it is a waste of money. My favorite are craft paints. They cheap, dry flat, come in variety of colors and shades. Most importantly they don't stiffen the paper.
2. Prime paper before painting. I use black or gray automotive primer. Most of the time I use black. You can be a bit sloppy when painting paper if it is primed. Let black color show up a little. It adds some character. White color showing through however would be very unrealistic.
3. Most of the time I use paper that comes with a kit but occasionally I need extra. I have used black notebook paper on few buildings but then I have discovered masking painters paper sold at Home Depot in 12 wide inch rolls that I cut to 3 inch wide rolls with a saw and use in home improvement projects. It is thin and brown. When painted forms uneven surface that gives roof some extra character.
4. If roof is flat don't bother cutting tar roofing into strips. Glue entire sheet, scribe lines with a knife and paint tar lines.
5. I weather roofs with combination of oil paints and weathering powders. I use Dr.Ben's powders but any other should work as well. It is multi-step multi-day process. Sometimes skip one or another step depending on effect I am looking for. First, I place small dots of white oil paint and using flat brush dipped in turpenoid drag paint down. Special care needs to be taken to make sure streaks go straight down and don't curve. When I am happy with result I let it dry for a day. Then I repeat streaking this time using dark brown paint. After letting it to dry I apply weathering powders. I stipple, brush them on to create some random pattern. I start with white color, then use greenish black (Dr. Ben's Brunswick Green?), following with brown. After I am done with powders to mix everything I apply black oil wash. It isn't exactly black. It has some brown tint in it. I make it by mixing Ivory Black oil paint from Reeves set and turpenoid. Please note that Windsor & Newton Ivory Black isn't same color. W&N doesn't have that brown tint. However, it can be added by mixing in some brown paint. After wash dries occasionally I go over with weathering powder if I find some areas I don't like. Final step is adding rust around metal roof objects such as vents and some soot black around chimneys.
Happy roofing!

What's in the box: Panzera's Delicatessen & Canavan Law by FOS

The last one in the series. Who is M.Canavan?

What's in the box: Zepeda's Shrimp Shack by FOS

This one was offered as freebie few months ago with purchase of kits worth $50 or more. Since then it has been seen being auctioned on eBay and going out for $50-60. Next time I am  definitely getting freebie whenever I like it or no. If I don't may cover the cost of paid kit.

What's in the box: Green Dragon Chinese Restaurant by FOS

I haven't done any WITB posts in a quite some time. Lets fix this. First up is Green Dragon Restaurant by FOS Scale Models. Like with my previous post I am not going to make any comments. The picture is all you get. I'll make comments about content and quality later when I build particular kit. This one may be coming up very soon. The idea is to build street diorama primarily of FOS kits possibly with some scratch build pieces. I don't know yet what kits will go into this and what arrangement will be. I'll just build few kits and then see what fits the best. Candidates are Green Dragon, Rothman's, Hokum, King Jazz, Panzera's Delicatessen, Jimmy Dee's Bar & Grill, The Pub Crawl. Porthole would be nice but it is OOP. The Green Dragon possibly is the first of the bunch  because I have some detail piece I am anxious to use.

Project Update: Pop Gracins by Bar Mills

Yesterday Bar Mills released their newest Bar Mills Moose issue. They announced very short run of Sokol's Mattress. And guess what. My blog received record single day number of hits. Thank you, Bar Mills! In my opinion their kits have best value for money for those who like to build. However, modelers who are looking to quickly populate their layouts with structures may be disappointed. It takes time to build each kit. Most of them aren't complicated at all only have quite a number of detail parts.
Pop Gracins is no different. It was quite easy to build and it took a bit longer than I originally anticipated. However, there is nothing new. I always underestimate time needed to build a kit. The hardest part in this kit was billboard on top of the garage. Bar Mills likes to use plywood for sign base. Bad part about it is that if it warps then it is hard to impossible to make it flat again. If the part has invisible back side it can be braced. Unfortuantelly, roof top signs have both sides visible. Some of them have supports with relativelly large gluing surfaces what allows to keep sign straight. Pop Gracins has very skinny supports. Anything I tried didn't hold on so I made new sign base out of chipboard. I like chipboard. It can be straightened out with fingers if it warps.
Over all it is neat little kit which I had previously discounted as uninteresting.

Project Update: Raglan Road by Bar Mills

I am working on the third structure in the kit - the pharmacy. It won't be pharmacy after I am done. I will change it to candy store. I have most time consuming part done i.e. shingling the walls. Although the walls are white and could have been left unpainted I covered them with light over spray of white paint. I believe that seals the paper and makes it easier to weather. Unsealed paper would soak stain in and if the stain was too dark it would be practically impossible to make it lighter. With sealed paper I can use clean turpenoid to wash off or dilute and spread around heavier wash.
I have been asked what I have used for painting the factory. It is Sherwin-Williams custom made paint. I took a piece of paper, painted it with Floquil CN Gray, and asked folks at  Sherwin-Williams to color match it. Why I didn't use Floquil you may ask. I can't stand smell of it. I very quickly get headache. Had Testors had acrylic version of CN Gray I would have used it though. Now I have whole pint of paint what is enough to last a liftime. I am adding picture of the sticker from the paint jar for everyone who would like to have paint of this color.

Project Update: Raglan Road by Bar Mills

I must be world champion of last step procrastinators. It seems it should be other way around. Less is left higher motivation should be to finish last few steps. I always find something else to do instead. Anyway, couple of canceled practices and accumulating number of unfinished kits in my modeling room have convinced me that it is time to take that last step. The result is completed factory building. I am pleased how it turned out. It is going to its owner next week and I am getting chunk of my precious modeling space back.