TheTerrainTutor I buy a cheap rag from the dollar store with the texture I'm looking for. I cut it into a few strips. I layer them over the roof section by section (usually 3-4 strips on each side are good. Then I brush PVA on it and paint it. Looks great when you're working at a larger scale.
I find if you can't get the tattoo needles, acupuncture needles work pretty well too. I use them to make REALLY tiny loop tools as the spring steel in them is ridiculously strong and THIN. It makes it hard to bend into the right shape for a loop, but also really hard to bend OUT of shape during use. Hope that helps.
I’ve seen a technique using strips of unravelled garden twine. It had that layered look you sometimes get with thatching. I think I first saw it on The Crafting Muse channel, but Landvaeter’s Lair (not sure of the spelling) refined and made the application more efficient.
Using a wire brush and lightly press it into the clay also works very well to texture it. I also use this technique on foam core board with the paper removed to simulate adobe siding. Great tips. Thanks.
I've been using faux fur to do my thatching and I really love the result, buying it can be really expensive new, but I found some thrift shops or goodwills sell scraps of fabric really cheap and I've found lots faux fur that way.
In US, you can buy as small as 1/8 yard (4 1/2") at a fabric store and that is 58" wide for under $2. This would give you lots to play with. And, if you do the PVA soak, you don't have to worry about the dye. Also, there are many, many types of fur available (In US, try Joanns ). If you have a play, please post your results on facebook for us all to learn from.
Perfect place to explain teddy bear fur. It is polyester, so coloring it can be tricky. You can use a dye made for polyester - but, you need so little and it is a big bottle. You can use paint. But, water it down, use it sparingly and expect it to cover in an uneven way. As it is drying, comb/brush it to keep it from clumping. You can keep doing it until you get the coloring you want. It won't be perfect, but thatching has many shades! If you are a perfectionist, suck it up and buy the bottle of polyester dye and just use a bit at a time (not that expensive, just for me, a bit wasteful).
Very handy techniques. Planning on doing a Japanese village and these techniques will come in handy. As for the brush...maybe use a tooth brush to reduce the snickering. You may lack hair but certainly have teeth!
All excellent options. One of the guys in our club does incredible looking thatched roofing by simply gluing static grass to the roof, allowing it to partially dry, and then using an old paint brush to mat down the static grass with watered-down craft glue. Final product very sharp, as are the methods you covered here!
If you look at Pendon museum, their thatched cottage roofs were originally done with human hair but this was quickly changed over to using plumbers hemp.
Great tutorials - a number of years ago I did a thatch cottage and used the old felt underlay used under carpet. Like the animal bedding it can be pulled apart into layers and laid down any way you prefer, layer on layer etc. For the "cross hatching" pattern used on the ridge line of the roof I have used a small grid light plastic material used in craft work. It can be easily cut into narrow strips, cutting it in a diagnal way so youare getting a diamond shape instead of the square grid.
Thnx, Mel. Another good technique sharing. My friends and I have been experimenting with both wall filler and acrylic caulking in a roughly similar manner to that which you used on the DAS. The caulking was excellent, while the filler tended to slump a bit while drying and needed a touch-up to retain texture. However, both worked quite well and were cheap-as to produce a reasonable thatch effect.
I work in 10mm scale so I use a very stiff bristled toothbrush. like the kind used for cleaning dentures. you can do rows fairly easy that way. then i use an Xacto and slit 100s of little lines in the DAS to finish it. This method sort of "pulls" the DAS down the roof and creates raised rows to simulate where one row of thatch has been laid on top of the other. start at the bottom of the roof and work your way up.
Love every second Mel, Thanks. You inspired me to dig out an old coconut fiber planter fill I bought as a sheet (yout bedding idea). Fantastic simple result
Looking at the Daz technique, I think you could use a ruler and press it in to the Daz before inscribing it. Using the flat of the ruler, laying the ruler on the surface, and then putting pressure on the upper edge, to create inclined areas on the surface. You could put in three or four horizontal lines, to form "courses" in the thatch; then inscribe your straw lines over these shapes. Great tutorial as ever.
I've only come across you channel in the last few days and must have watched at least 10 vids. I think they're great and will be perfect for me and my young son to play around with. He chose to make a Grubenhaus for a school project and we used plumbers hemp. It produced a great result but it wasn't the easiest to glue down with PVA. Having watched your log bunker it occurs to me that I could try double sided tape instead of glue. Thanks again for sharing all your ideas.
Got to thinking, you know another product you could try and might just give superior detail. Ever heard of Coco grow mat? It is a coconut (normally) fiber mat that is used for gardening and erosion control. Got to look around because some places it can get ridiculously expensive but I have seen it at like home improvement stores for really cheap and it has the mass and body where you would not even need a substrate and could use it as is with maybe a super thin something under it. Definitely worth taking a look at.
Man, I was loking for this, and looking for it, but I could not find it. The algorithm found it. Anyway I knew you had to have a good thatched roof video somewhere. Thanks Mel👍👍
The great naked teddy bear cull of 2018, they'll be talking about it for generations, thatching roofs they'll say, it was all over miniature thatched roofs .....
(Minneapolis Minnesota) Great video. I’m planning for next year’s Xmas ornament gifts. I want to create little cardboard or solid wood mini thatched cottages about 1 inch cubed. Some may go under plastic domes and some will hang with an eye hook. I will experiment with all your suggestions. The teddy bear fur, if not too thick, might be a go. I might be able to cut in a roof peak detail like you see on real cottages. I just bought some 1:64 textured white brick sheet paper for the sides. They’ll sit on a branch slice and bushes will be moss and flowers painted on the walls. Vellum is nice as window glass. So glad there are so railroad model ideas out there. Ta! 🥰
NOOOOOOO! first I find out happy seppuku closed a while ago, today. And now I realize I missed out on your book too. Please tell me this will be for sale at a later point. I had been on a binge of shows and hadn't watched crafting stuff in a couple months.
All the thatching I've seen (mostly on short visits to UK, not a lot around Southern Ontario!) has been made from bundled straw or hay so has a more linear appearance. That would make me think that the random fiber solutions (hemp bedding, green scrubby, etc) would not look very realistic?
It depends, what you're seeing is the fine result of the art of thatching, the terrain we're building would be from a much ealier time in the development of thatching and thatching materials
Is Das special or is all air dry clay created equal? My 4 year old has a big tub of cheap crayola air dry clay, so there's no sense in getting Das if I can just use that.
can I substitute the air dry for modeling clay I have a bucket load of modeling clay for dioramas and not modular i had a half brick of air dry, dry up on me with water enclosed in 2 2ubaware bowls one smaller then other. i have a little bake clay but i don't wanna burn my kitchen down with foam lol keep em coming i started watching you during a November 2016 surgery heal
The thing I dont like about the faux fur method is that it inevitably curls at the ends when paint is applied. Real straw doesnt curl. All those cowlicks on the eaves just doesnt look right. The paint tends to glob several hairs together and make curled points. trimming them isnt always effective.
Pure gold dust here. I have a thatched roof building project on the horizon and this video has just saved my bacon. One question, my roof will be about 40cm long and 15cm deep on each side so would the das method be suitable for aomething of that size?
Hey Mel, quick question thats a bit off topic. So this Das clay you use I have been messing around with some different clay looking for one that I can use to create highly detailed masters to create resin casts from. Never heard of this stuff but was wondering if you know if it will work for creating things like model panels where I can sculpt in like pipes, rivets and other greeblie stuff and if it will hold up to be cast with?
Your sculpt of a thatch roof was great, but DAS is a poor choice. It seems 21st century crafters don't know about Apoxie Sculpt. None of the uneven drying because it's not drying, but curing, and it's not prone to crack. Because I work in 1/6, faux fur is too fine. I use painted faux grass, as long as I can find. If you roll it under at the bottom or layer it, it looks properly thick.
Why trim the teddy bear fur? To leave it uneven makes it look more realistic for when thatch roofing starts to get old and loose it tends to slide down some what showing age. I wouldnt trim the teddy bear fur Id leave it like it is on the edge itll look more real. There is also another technique for making thatch roofing using twin wrapped around some cardboard then hot glue and then combed out to look like thatch. But dont use the Jute twin its more like a yarn, unlike sisal. So far I like the teddy bear and the twine method myself. I got the idea from Landvaettr's Lair and his tutorial to crafting thatch roofing which I tried it and it worked great. Check out his video also. ruclips.net/video/gM7izZHEyEU/видео.html
So these are my go to techniques, what are your favourite techniques and materials?
TheTerrainTutor I buy a cheap rag from the dollar store with the texture I'm looking for. I cut it into a few strips. I layer them over the roof section by section (usually 3-4 strips on each side are good. Then I brush PVA on it and paint it. Looks great when you're working at a larger scale.
My goto technique is to buy bath towels, Cut them into strips and place them on a roof, goat in PVA and when dry, paint and drybrush.
I find if you can't get the tattoo needles, acupuncture needles work pretty well too. I use them to make REALLY tiny loop tools as the spring steel in them is ridiculously strong and THIN. It makes it hard to bend into the right shape for a loop, but also really hard to bend OUT of shape during use. Hope that helps.
I’ve seen a technique using strips of unravelled garden twine. It had that layered look you sometimes get with thatching. I think I first saw it on The Crafting Muse channel, but Landvaeter’s Lair (not sure of the spelling) refined and made the application more efficient.
Use plumbers hemp instead of twine, especially if you are going for smaller scales.
Using a wire brush and lightly press it into the clay also works very well to texture it. I also use this technique on foam core board with the paper removed to simulate adobe siding. Great tips. Thanks.
I've been using faux fur to do my thatching and I really love the result, buying it can be really expensive new, but I found some thrift shops or goodwills sell scraps of fabric really cheap and I've found lots faux fur that way.
That's a good tip mate, thanks
Just trying to save the teddy bears Mel ;)
In US, you can buy as small as 1/8 yard (4 1/2") at a fabric store and that is 58" wide for under $2. This would give you lots to play with. And, if you do the PVA soak, you don't have to worry about the dye. Also, there are many, many types of fur available (In US, try Joanns ). If you have a play, please post your results on facebook for us all to learn from.
Perfect place to explain teddy bear fur. It is polyester, so coloring it can be tricky. You can use a dye made for polyester - but, you need so little and it is a big bottle. You can use paint. But, water it down, use it sparingly and expect it to cover in an uneven way. As it is drying, comb/brush it to keep it from clumping. You can keep doing it until you get the coloring you want. It won't be perfect, but thatching has many shades! If you are a perfectionist, suck it up and buy the bottle of polyester dye and just use a bit at a time (not that expensive, just for me, a bit wasteful).
Thanks Kat
Very handy techniques. Planning on doing a Japanese village and these techniques will come in handy. As for the brush...maybe use a tooth brush to reduce the snickering. You may lack hair but certainly have teeth!
Nan, I'll just keep pretending and it makes a good scratcher for my barren wasteland of a head
All excellent options. One of the guys in our club does incredible looking thatched roofing by simply gluing static grass to the roof, allowing it to partially dry, and then using an old paint brush to mat down the static grass with watered-down craft glue. Final product very sharp, as are the methods you covered here!
I'll give that a go, thanks buddy!
I've been waiting for this video so I can start my Iron Age village... Thank you, I have some DAS lying around, so I can start right away.
Have fun bud :-D
Much better than just using Shredded Wheat
You don't do you?
Actually that could work with a few layers of varnish
If you look at Pendon museum, their thatched cottage roofs were originally done with human hair but this was quickly changed over to using plumbers hemp.
I'm not surprised!
Great tutorials - a number of years ago I did a thatch cottage and used the old felt underlay used under carpet. Like the animal bedding it can be pulled apart into layers and laid down any way you prefer, layer on layer etc. For the "cross hatching" pattern used on the ridge line of the roof I have used a small grid light plastic material used in craft work. It can be easily cut into narrow strips, cutting it in a diagnal way so youare getting a diamond shape instead of the square grid.
Thnx, Mel. Another good technique sharing. My friends and I have been experimenting with both wall filler and acrylic caulking in a roughly similar manner to that which you used on the DAS. The caulking was excellent, while the filler tended to slump a bit while drying and needed a touch-up to retain texture. However, both worked quite well and were cheap-as to produce a reasonable thatch effect.
Thanks for the tips matey!
Definitely using some of these techniques for some Jurassic Park buildings I'm making.
Painting caulk spread thin and work your texture with a toothpick. It's flexible and acts as a filler.
Cheers dude. Great vid. Combing teddy bear fur looks oddly satisfying :). Maybe that's why it's so popular.
It reminds us of time gone by mate :-)
That was awful nice of you to share these techniques. :)
It's what I'm here for mate
I work in 10mm scale so I use a very stiff bristled toothbrush. like the kind used for cleaning dentures. you can do rows fairly easy that way. then i use an Xacto and slit 100s of little lines in the DAS to finish it. This method sort of "pulls" the DAS down the roof and creates raised rows to simulate where one row of thatch has been laid on top of the other. start at the bottom of the roof and work your way up.
Love every second Mel, Thanks. You inspired me to dig out an old coconut fiber planter fill I bought as a sheet (yout bedding idea). Fantastic simple result
Looking at the Daz technique, I think you could use a ruler and press it in to the Daz before inscribing it. Using the flat of the ruler, laying the ruler on the surface, and then putting pressure on the upper edge, to create inclined areas on the surface. You could put in three or four horizontal lines, to form "courses" in the thatch; then inscribe your straw lines over these shapes.
Great tutorial as ever.
Tried it, doesn't work, do it as strips on grease proof paper and then lay them down mate, got decent results that way mate
Thanks, Commander Mel! The Teddy bear fur technique looks like it can work for me. I'll give it a try.
Good luck bud
I've only come across you channel in the last few days and must have watched at least 10 vids. I think they're great and will be perfect for me and my young son to play around with. He chose to make a Grubenhaus for a school project and we used plumbers hemp. It produced a great result but it wasn't the easiest to glue down with PVA. Having watched your log bunker it occurs to me that I could try double sided tape instead of glue. Thanks again for sharing all your ideas.
Welcome aboard buddy
@@TheTerrainTutor thx very much and for taking the time to reply.
I have used blue foam but never thought about Das and I even have some on the shelf! I'll give it a try. Thanks for the awesome video!
Have fun bud!
Willow has reportedly spent the last two weeks looking for her teddy bear!
Shhh
So I came back to this old video because I'm considering doing some thatched roofs. The first thing I see is an ad for a roofing company
Great as always! Looking forward to one day creating a beautiful peasant village to ravage by war.
The perfect use of a beautiful peasant village!
Excellent and simple techniques I wouldn't have thought of! Thanks!
Glad they helped buddy
Terrain question of course terrain tutor has it covered
I was just thinking about thatched roofing for my Mordheim build. What good timing. Going to be recycling some old stuffies
Hope it helps bud
ahaha i wonder what would someone think if they get in my workshop and im thoroughly brushing a shiny piece of teddy bear fur xD hahahaha
Most people think I'm mad anyway, so I've got nothing to lose mate
Got to thinking, you know another product you could try and might just give superior detail. Ever heard of Coco grow mat? It is a coconut (normally) fiber mat that is used for gardening and erosion control. Got to look around because some places it can get ridiculously expensive but I have seen it at like home improvement stores for really cheap and it has the mass and body where you would not even need a substrate and could use it as is with maybe a super thin something under it. Definitely worth taking a look at.
Not seen it but I'll check it out mate
Excellent tutorial! Thank you for posting! 😊
Man, I was loking for this, and looking for it, but I could not find it.
The algorithm found it. Anyway I knew you had to have a good thatched roof video somewhere.
Thanks Mel👍👍
Glad I could help
That first effect looks great!
Just what I needed when I needed it. TY!
Hope it helps buddy
Really enjoyed your tutorial,I've seen coil door mat used as thatching,it looked terrific.
Cheers Tutor you are my guide !
That's what I'm here for guys!
NICE
thanks
This is exactly what I was looking for!
Спасибо за интересное видео. Очень полезная информация с оригинальными техниками!
Я рад, что вы нашли технику полезным помощником
Okay. I just watched your segment where you use the wire brush.
great information mel. like how you make the thatch with das, will be trying this out in the winter.
Hope it helps you mate
no teddys where harmed good
Yet! :-D
Great, GREAT tutorial! Thanks a lot!
Very nice
thanks bud
Awesome
Thank you! Just what I needed for my first project:)!
Perfect timing
Very cool Mel.
cheers bud
Thanks mate great techniques, but all I can see now are naked teddy bears lol.
The great naked teddy bear cull of 2018, they'll be talking about it for generations, thatching roofs they'll say, it was all over miniature thatched roofs .....
(Minneapolis Minnesota) Great video. I’m planning for next year’s Xmas ornament gifts. I want to create little cardboard or solid wood mini thatched cottages about 1 inch cubed. Some may go under plastic domes and some will hang with an eye hook. I will experiment with all your suggestions. The teddy bear fur, if not too thick, might be a go. I might be able to cut in a roof peak detail like you see on real cottages. I just bought some 1:64 textured white brick sheet paper for the sides. They’ll sit on a branch slice and bushes will be moss and flowers painted on the walls. Vellum is nice as window glass. So glad there are so railroad model ideas out there. Ta! 🥰
Glad it helps
I use Brown Acrylic frame sealant, which I believe is also called caulk.
I also use the same caulk for roads, rivers, haystacks and earthwork banking.
instead of brushes, cant you just use plumbers hemp? should give you the same effect for a lot cheaper.
Yep, I can see that working mate
NOOOOOOO! first I find out happy seppuku closed a while ago, today. And now I realize I missed out on your book too. Please tell me this will be for sale at a later point. I had been on a binge of shows and hadn't watched crafting stuff in a couple months.
All the thatching I've seen (mostly on short visits to UK, not a lot around Southern Ontario!) has been made from bundled straw or hay so has a more linear appearance. That would make me think that the random fiber solutions (hemp bedding, green scrubby, etc) would not look very realistic?
It depends, what you're seeing is the fine result of the art of thatching, the terrain we're building would be from a much ealier time in the development of thatching and thatching materials
TheTerrainTutor Would that use more of a sod type cover than cut hay?
Coming soon!
Dude you are the best, im new to the channel but I love it. Thank you for all your hard work!!!
i find you to be one of the best, what ide give to have your knowlage, queston to get a natural couler, for a thatched roof , what do you recomend
God made some heads perfect, and he made some hairy.
Nice techniques! Thanks.
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! “ Comments are going to be awful “ I love you Mel. ;)
I was right!
Teddy bear fur... SOOO much easier than the loose grass I used on my model...
Hope it helps bud
I'm on a hunt.
teddy bears
!
I thought you were going to use the paint brush from the get go. The roof made from blue foam looked more like you made a sponge to me. lol
Perhaps I like sponge textured thatch roofs ;-)
Is Das special or is all air dry clay created equal?
My 4 year old has a big tub of cheap crayola air dry clay, so there's no sense in getting Das if I can just use that.
Should be roughly the same mate
can I substitute the air dry for modeling clay I have a bucket load of modeling clay for dioramas and not modular i had a half brick of air dry, dry up on me with water enclosed in 2 2ubaware bowls one smaller then other. i have a little bake clay but i don't wanna burn my kitchen down with foam lol
keep em coming
i started watching you during a November 2016 surgery heal
Don't know mate, give it a go and find out, clay is clay afterall so the techniques should work
thank you for the tips
great work!!! thanks so much!!!!
You had me at Teddy bear skin. Getting out my scissors, and I'm looking for my sister's bear.. 😈
Don't!
One word: eBay!
You just recreated D. Trumps hair Mr bose😂
Great vid as always😃👍🏻
Not sure about Trumps but now you mention it, it's got a cracking resemblance to my old physic teachers hair :-D
Thanks. You really Rock
Brilliant!
TheTerrainTutor Is there a way to just give you a one time donation instead of patreon?
Sure mate, paypal - theterraintutor@gmail.com and Thank you, it's genuinely appreciated!
The thing I dont like about the faux fur method is that it inevitably curls at the ends when paint is applied. Real straw doesnt curl. All those cowlicks on the eaves just doesnt look right. The paint tends to glob several hairs together and make curled points. trimming them isnt always effective.
Paint the underneath edge first bud ;-)
hi how do you colour the clay to make it look more real like thatch
What was the bedding material in flat roll?
... and now I want to make terrain again. And have an orange.
Do it!!!
Pure gold dust here. I have a thatched roof building project on the horizon and this video has just saved my bacon. One question, my roof will be about 40cm long and 15cm deep on each side so would the das method be suitable for aomething of that size?
Should be ok if you do it in stages mate
Hey Mel, quick question thats a bit off topic. So this Das clay you use I have been messing around with some different clay looking for one that I can use to create highly detailed masters to create resin casts from. Never heard of this stuff but was wondering if you know if it will work for creating things like model panels where I can sculpt in like pipes, rivets and other greeblie stuff and if it will hold up to be cast with?
procreate bud, that's what you want
Thanks buddy, UR the man...;)
Why not attach a bunch of tooth picks with a rubber band?
Your sculpt of a thatch roof was great, but DAS is a poor choice. It seems 21st century crafters don't know about Apoxie Sculpt. None of the uneven drying because it's not drying, but curing, and it's not prone to crack.
Because I work in 1/6, faux fur is too fine. I use painted faux grass, as long as I can find. If you roll it under at the bottom or layer it, it looks properly thick.
Mel has a brush in the studio, probably feels as useless as the person who tests indicator lights at the BMW factory 😁
There's still a bit on the sides!!!!!!!! :-D
Why trim the teddy bear fur? To leave it uneven makes it look more realistic for when thatch roofing starts to get old and loose it tends to slide down some what showing age. I wouldnt trim the teddy bear fur Id leave it like it is on the edge itll look more real. There is also another technique for making thatch roofing using twin wrapped around some cardboard then hot glue and then combed out to look like thatch. But dont use the Jute twin its more like a yarn, unlike sisal. So far I like the teddy bear and the twine method myself.
I got the idea from Landvaettr's Lair and his tutorial to crafting thatch roofing which I tried it and it worked great. Check out his video also.
ruclips.net/video/gM7izZHEyEU/видео.html
Have you made any burninated thatch roofs?
would there be any roof left?
Yeah....
How about a wire brush.
Give it a go mate
👍
Just give the bottom a bit of a prod
lots of little prods, just be gentle but go real quick, you get great results with practice bud
hey Mel i think its time ya got a hair cut mate !!! having a brush with ya is a wee bit strange ,,,, ya funny bugga
Yep, trim time, the greys are raging!
HO NO NOT DA BEARS !!!! yes like last bit see more yes we will
Oh yes the bears!
so that's where donald trump gets his rugs ^_^