Roofers - HO Scale

Work on a flat roof

Asphalt roofing was laid the same way for decades: the compound was heated in a kettle, carried up in buckets and spread with brooms and mops. The set catches exactly this procedure in five poses.

Five men, five tasks

The first worker is sweeping the dirt away to get a clean base. The second is filling buckets at the kettle. The third carries them balanced on his shoulders, which was once a perfectly ordinary way of getting them up. The fourth lifts a soaked mop out of a bucket and the fifth is taking a short break, leaning on his handle and visibly worn out.

Why the scene stands out on a layout

A roof is one of the few places where a viewer looking from above sees better than at street level. That is exactly why it pays to put some action there: on most layouts extensive roof areas are completely empty. A ratio of 1:87 meanwhile keeps the small figures clearly readable even from a distance, because nothing in the background distracts from them.

The accessories that make the scene

The kettle, the buckets and the marks of spread compound have to be made or bought separately. Darkened bands on the roofing need only be suggested with a glossy acrylic paint or a varnish, and the result reveals at once that work really is going on up on the roof.

Readability from a distance

Figures on a roof are usually far from the edge of a layout, so what decides is the silhouette, not the detail. A man carrying buckets on his shoulders or a worker leaning on a handle can be made out even from a meter away, whereas small gestures of the hands are lost at that distance. When placing them, therefore, turn the figures sideways to the viewer: the outline of the body is then more pronounced and the scene reads without anybody having to bend down to it.