roof caps, and roof soffits? Advice needed

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Regular poster 128 posts Shawnee Regular poster 128 posts

Shawnee

I'm beginning to make some structures for my layout and finding many of my kits have poor model roofs. Feeling that roofs are so visible and thus important, I intend to replace with sealed seam metal roof and asphalt roof sheets from Evergreen, Micromark, respectively.

Question though: How do you experienced modelers solve for the roofcaps necessary on these roofs, how do you fabricate the roofcaps and what strip styrene do you use? (I'm modeling in styrene, not wood).

Also a question: I find that most kits do not have soffits on the roofs. I'm assuming you use strip styreme to undergird the roofs but any examples?

Photo examples most welcome! Thank you from a re-emerging hobbyist.

Reply 0

ctxmf74 Super User 15,959 posts

ctxmf74

roof caps?

Are you talking about metal roof vents and flashing? Some metal details are available such as stacks, vents, etc. Others can be fabricated from tube, sheet stock ,etc. For soffits I'd use the thinnest material I could find, either styrene or card stock.... I just look at full size buildings and try to copy them as best possible within the limits of scale and available materials....DaveB

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Reply 0

RMeyer Regular poster 115 posts

RMeyer

Soffits are not usually visible

Unless someone inspects the building with a mirror you probably are not going to see the bottoms of the soffits. If you want the vertical pieces a thin styrene or cardboard could be used. Some metal roofs (corrugated and standing seam) do not have soffits. If these are plastic you can file the ends down (from the bottom) real thin so that they look more realistic.