Getting slated or is it curtains for me?

In this case this is not about me getting criticised or slated as the saying goes but it is about the roof of the Dapol General Store. The roof was sprayed in a light slate coloured grey which looked very boring and mono tone. Look at any roof and it will have variations in colour both from the material used and the aging process. The slates on this building needed some variation so putting three dabs of light grey, dark grey and white on a paint top I spent half an hour listening to the Budget roundup - no tax relief on model kits and model railways then - randomly mixing various hues of grey and picking out individual tiles until I was happy with the look. There is no art to it - its completely random just like my brain! Once dry I toned it all down with a wash of diluted black paint which would also highlight the gaps between the tiles.

It looks a bit of a mess when you first apply the wash but leave it alone for a while and do something else - I thought about Mrs Woody's list of jobs for me to do - and once its dry it will look fine.

Whilst I was waiting for the paint to dry and having thought about the list for a few seconds I turned my attention to the window frames which is going to lead onto the curtain bit of the post title. The kit comes with a sheet of acetate to glaze the windows. Mine actually came with two - maybe Dapol are giving you the opportunity to double glaze your windows??? Anyway I settled for one sheet. I glued the frame to the acetate with UHU glue. Super glue or plastic glue will just cloud the acetate. Once glued and cut to size the next thing was making the General Store look lived in and that means curtains in the windows. If you look at some models that modellers build of houses they have fantastic patterned curtains facing the window and it looks very grand from outside. However if you lived in the house you would be looking at the back of the curtain which would usually be a backing sheet in white or some other mono colour. So I at least avoided the mistake of having my curtains facing the outside by painting the curtain backing direct to the glazing. Saves cutting bits of paper which have to be glued in position and then fall off once the building is sealed up and all the issues that causes. The pictures below show what I mean.