Felt roof

I like a bit of variety in the building materials on a layout. It's too easy to stick to a limited palette of slates, tiles, brick and corrugated iron. Faced with a flat roof on a modified Scaledale building I had a crack at something new. Inspiration came from simply looking out of a window at an extension roof - it's clad in roofing felt.

I'm sure I've seen this done before in model form but for the life of me I can't remember it. Some of the Wills kits have it I think but that doesn't help me much.

Now I'm acquainted with the felt roof having recovered a few sheds in my time. I know from painfully hanging on for dear life that it's a stoney finish but one with little in the way of texture except when you are very close. Certainly in 4mm:1ft scale I wasn't likely to need much.

My plan was simple - masking tape. It has a very fine grain which I hoped would look like distant felt. Best of all, being self-adhesive, application would be a doddle. It just has to be stuck down with something like a 2mm overlap.

What I did forget is that felt isn't grey. It's a sort of greeny colour and my black dry-brushed with dark grey isn't really correct. I might get the dry-brush out again or perhaps some weathering powders would be a better bet.