Scratch built Galvanized roofing

[Anonymous]

Hello,, I am new to this forum but not new to scratch building railroad buildings I have been scratch building for 20 + years. I thought I would share a very simple way to make galvanized roofing. First save all those aluminum pie pans you get when you buy pies at the store. Them go to your local craft store and buy what is called a paper crimper. Cut the bottoms of the pie pans into 2 inch strips and simply feed it through the paper crimper, what comes out is a piece for galvanized roofing. for less than $20 you can make this roofing for years to come. If you would like to see this roofing go to my web site www.MrTrain.com click on my train room and look at my 2 stall engine house this is how I made that roof and it looks like the real thing. If everyone liked this tip let me know and I will share more tips on scratch building that I have learned over the last 20+ years. Thank you for reading.. Alan

[egmurphy]

Well I thought it was an interesting tip, and the material on your enginehouse looked pretty good to me, although I'm not sure they make paper crimpers small enough to generate corrugated material for my N scale structures (will have to check on that).

If you've got more scratch building tips, bring 'em on. There's no such thing as too many tips. Not all are useful to everyone, but you just never know when they'll turn out to be just the thing.

Regards

Ed

[Anonymous]

Ed,

It's not as simple as using the paper crimper but I have used a pizza cutter and straigt edge before to make corrugated roofing.

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Alan,

I think we all enjoy hearing about "how to's" and "here's how I did it". Keep posting [:D]

[egmurphy]

Snake

What did you use for raw material, something heavy like the pie pan tin, or would heavy duty foil work? Did you put the foil on something soft to be able to indent with the pizza cutter?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I used "resturant" grade heavy duty aluminum foil. Resturant grade foil is thicker but I'm sure Reynolds Wrap would work. If you'd like to use the thicker resturant grade foil, you might try talking a waiter/waitress out of some. [:D]

When I was at RAF Bentwaters England in the early '70's I got some from a friend that worked in a resturant.

To make the indents, I laid the foil on heavy cardstock (backing from a notepad). Don't press too hard or you'll cut right through the foil. You'll need a gentle hand as the foil bends/creases easy.