Tarpaper roofing on MDC Pullman Palace Cars

[GN.2-6-8-0]

Finally got up the nerve to try the Simulated tarpaper roofing on the Johan Carlson.
Started by using a piece of black tissue,the kind given with gifts. Cut two scale 25ft piece's a little wider than the roof itself one for each end then cut a scale 40ft piece for the center section.
Next painted the 1st section using a 1/2" soft bristle brush using Pollyscale Oily Black acrylic. layed the 1st piece and smoothed it into place with my finger being careful to make sure the end was down good and tight.
Next repeated the process on the other 'Observation End'.....again making sure everything was nice'n'tight.
Finally laid the center section and can say the Polly Scale paint worked great as a adhesive.
Within 30 mins. I was able to brush on 3 even coats of the Oily Black on the entire roof each coat about 10min. apart

Using the three pieces eased the process by letting me work on smaller section's at a time. also though they didn't show up as much as i would have liked there are 2 seams across the roof to break up the continuous roof surface a bit.
If there was a difficult spot it was triming the edges , even a new no.11 blade didn't really want to give a totally perfect clean cut on the edges so decided to simply paint the remaining two lower roof sections using the Oily Black again. and will go back and work on the edges tomorrow.

One down 5 to go

All in all I'm pretty happy with the results.

 

[UP2CSX]

Good try but I think I would re-do it. Tarpaper roofs on in-service cars would be almost perfectly flat except at the seams, of which there were a lot on an 86 foor car. Even then, you'd only see the overlap at the seam. That roof would have needed immediate attention at the car shop since a roof with than many wrinkles was about to start linking. There's a page with some decent pictures of tarpaper car roofs at http://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/dictionary/dictionary1.htm#Platform roof.

 

[GN.2-6-8-0]

Yeah' the wrinkles were in the paper before i started , you know how they stuff that tissue into the gift bags,tried working them out with my finger as i applied paper over the paint.

O.k hows this ,Gave the roof a very very light sanding with 220 w/d sandpaper just enough to knock down the most of the wrinkles yet your still able to see some texture on the roof and then applied another coat of the Oily Black to blend everything together again.Frankly think any smoother and I'd as well just leave roof alone other than painting it....

 

[UP2CSX]

That's much better. If you want to add to the detail, get a flexible straight edge, like some thin styrene, and make some seam lines with a fine point black Sharpie. About one seam line per inch should do it. That will give the appearance of the overlapping seams that were common on wood car tops.

 

[GN.2-6-8-0]

That's much better. If you want to add to the detail, get a flexible straight edge, like some thin styrene, and make some seam lines with a fine point black Sharpie. About one seam line per inch should do it. That will give the appearance of the overlapping seams that were common on wood car tops.

Jim
Your speaking of lengthwise seams like the cars shown in your link?Those looked to be mid to late 1800s cars. My interest lies from 1910 to Pre WWII, did they still use that style of roofing with the narrow strips that late?

 

[UP2CSX]

No, the strip marks should be across the width of the car. The tarpaper was laid in pieces about six feet long and then overlapped. The roof area below the clerestory had tarpaper that was usually laid lengthwise in narrow strips so those areas should have three lengthwise strip marks. Thos was common from about 1890 up to the end of wood cars.

 

[Larry]

Wouldn't thin sandpaper look better for a tarpaper roof, like 1200 grit?

 

[GN.2-6-8-0]

Thanks Jim
I was seriously thinking of using a sharpie for the seams.though I figured they would have been further apart....20 ft or so ,thanks for the heads up on the correct distance between the seams.
Edit: looking at the Oriental Limited in SOME CLASSIC TRAINS found a good picture of the roof on one of these cars showing indeed about a six ft seam spacing.