How to Make OO Scale Corrugated Roofing

corrugated roofing model how to make

Corrugated sheeting is a common material on railway buildings, particularly in the late steam era, but how can you make it?

Nissan huts, station subway stair covers, factory roofing, goods sheds. The list goes on.

If you’re making buildings for your railway you’ll need corrugated roofing at some point.

Wills, and others sell good representations of it for OO scale but if you prefer to scratch build your own here’s a quick and easy technique I’ve been using recently.

Nip down to your local arts and crafts store and take a look in the cake decorating aisle.  Find the cake pillars, like the one seen below.

The top and bottom don’t matter, it’s the middle section with the parallel ridges and grooves we’re after.

cake stand corrugated sheet model making how to

Cake decorating aids make great roofing aids too.

Finding the ones where these grooves are to scale can be difficult.

In my case, I took an OO gauge figure with me and surreptitiously held him against the ridges.

I’d previously compared looked at some corrugated roofing and found ridges tended to be about a hand length so I looked for cake pillars with ridges that were the size of the hands for my diminutive my OO figure.

Being an arts and crafts shop, the assistants will hopefully be understanding should you get caught!

While you’re out, nip over to the supermarket and pick up some tin foil cooking trays. The sort ready-meals come in.

These are the ideal thickness. Normal tin foil is too thin and won’t hold the impressions.

Cut out sections of these to the sizes for the roofing sheets you require and wrap them around the cake pillar; taping it to hold it firmly against the pattern.

corrugated sheet how to

Wrap the foil around the cake stand and press in the grooves.

Now with a round tip tool or fingernail, press the tin-foil into the grooves.

This gives you the corrugated pattern in the tin-foil.

Painting

With this made, it’s just a case of painting it to the desired colours wanted.

I use acrylic greys to start and then add rust and weathering paints to finish it off.

That’s it.

Let the paints dry and then put them on whatever building you’re modelling. In my case, the improvised roofing worked wonders on an OO gauge barn I made for my White River Mills layout.

 


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Founder of ModelRailwayEngineer, Andy Leaning

Andy is a lifelong modeler, writer, and founder of modelrailwayengineer.com. He has been building model railways, dioramas, and miniatures for over 20 years. His passion for model making and railways began when he was a child, building his first layout at the age of seven.
Andy’s particular passion is making scenery and structures in 4mm scale, which he sells commercially. He is particularly interested in modelling the railways of South West England during the late Victorian/early Edwardian era, although he also enjoys making sci-fi and fantasy figures and dioramas. His website has won several awards, and he is a member of MERG (Model Railway Electronics Group) and the 009 Society.
When not making models, Andy lives in Surrey with his wife and teenage son. Other interests include history, science fiction, photography, and programming. Read more about Andy.

Afflliate disclosure:The links on this page may take you to carefully selected businesses, such as Hornby, Amazon, eBay and Scale Model Scenery, where you can purchase the product under affiliate programmes. This means I receive a small commission on any orders placed although the price you pay does not change. You can read my full affiliate policy here. I also sell my my own ready to use, pre-made and painted buildings and terrain features. browse the range.
2 comments
  1. Thin corrugated cardboard and 1.5mm steel rods work for me.
    Pizza box, Toy box. ( must be thin ).
    Take one layer off to expose corrugation and insert rods.

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