Roofing

[XBrickmonster]

Hey everyone! I was hoping to get some help regarding medieval roofing techniques that are not just the plain old slope bricks. Thanks for your input!

 

My Flickr!

[Slegengr]

There are many different techniques for medieval roofs other than simple slope bricks (but the slope method is still tried and true though simple).

Some simple ones:

1. Use plates stacked at different intervals to look like layered thatching.
2. Use tiles on intervals to look like shakes or slate
3. Use 1x2 tiles but only stick down one end completely so the other end sticks up and is not fully engaged on the studs.  This represents shakes very well (and is not shown accurately in the image due to LDD). (I cannot seem to find the origination of this or an image, but @Siercon and Coral were the original designers of this technique, I believe)

Some more complex techniques are achieved using minifigure hands or droid arms to represent thatching.  Black flippers have been used for an interesting shake/slate appearance.

Take a look at @Kai NRG's recent blog post (link on Flickr page) for more ideas:

Look around in the Historic Forum and the Guilds of Historica Subforum here on Eurobricks for many more ideas.

Also, just try some of your own ideas and be creative!  That is what the LEGO ideal is about.

Edited August 4, 2017 by Slegengr
Corrected a link

[XBrickmonster]

5 hours ago, Slegengr said:

1. Use plates stacked at different intervals to look like layered thatching.
2. Use tiles on intervals to look like shakes or slate
3. Use 1x2 tiles but only stick down one end completely so the other end sticks up and is not fully engaged on the studs.  This represents shakes very well (and is not shown accurately in the image due to LDD). (I cannot seem to find the origination of this or an image, but @Siercon and Coral were the original designers of this technique, I believe)

Some more complex techniques are achieved using minifigure hands or droid arms to represent thatching.  Black flippers have been used for an interesting shake/slate appearance.

Thanks a lot Slegengr! 

Does anyone know how roofs like the one pictured below are acheived?

That curved shape seems difficult to create

 

Thanks for the help

Edited August 4, 2017 by XBrickmonster

[Slegengr]

@XBrickmonster To achieve a curve, just use hinges or Mixel joints to attach together spans of flat plates.  The curve on the right appears to be made up of about 4 sections of plates each about 4-6 studs wide that are jointed together.  Complex angles such as this are an advanced technique, but they are not too hard to achieve if you just play around with hinges, Mixel joints, and SNOT bricks.

In most cases, the hinged connections or SNOT bricks are hidden on the inside so as not to affect the outside appearance.

The above roof shows just how much texturing can be achieved by layering simple plates, wedges, round plates, and tiles to imitate thatching.

Edited August 4, 2017 by Slegengr

[XBrickmonster]

@Slegengr Thanks for help! I have built a little cottage that I will upload pictures of to My Flickr account soon using some of these tips!

Edited August 4, 2017 by XBrickmonster

[Slegengr]

@XBrickmonster I will be looking forward to seeing your cottage!
P.S. When you want to tag another member here on Eurobricks, use the @ symbol as you did, but choose the username from the dropdown that appears.  This will cause a notification to pop up when the user logs in.

[XBrickmonster]

@Slegengr Thanks! It worked that time. I have been looking at more roofs like the ones from Cesar Soars. I have been figuring out some of the ways he builds his roofs, and I can see what you had mentioned about the hinges and the mixel joints. 

Thanks again

 

[kabel]

There is a collection of roof building techniques in the index section!