The roof is most certainly NOT on fire.
The roof is the keystone, the crux of the chapel piece in my Orktober diorama. While its deceptive in that its "just a roof," its also got to be totally functional. The inside of the house is going to hold the wiring for the LEDs, and the roof has to be removable. Also, its the largest "square footage" viewable area of the focus of the kit. Its a deceptive beast.
With the interior of the house exposed, and me trying to hide what I can in there, I had to make the roof "airtight." This started with a hole in the top that, while it adds some character, needed to be filled in to eliminate random lights and exposed wires breaking the illusion the kit creates. Originally I planned to create a false attic, that contained various vermin and whatnot, but decided in the interest of time preservation to just cover the bottom with sheet styrene, but the exposed crossbrace made me have to be creative with placement. I ended up puttying some areas, and overkilled it by putting some foil tape to block out all light that even THOUGHT about escaping.
After that, I primed the whole thing in black, and started looking into painting. I created a wet palette with various reds, pinks, oranges, and browns, and started swirling them together to get a nice "clay roof" feel. There are about four different colors, but some of the changes are pretty subtle, especially after I did a sloppy wash to tone everything down and give it an older look.
Finally, I decided to do something to really benefit those who get up close to the final product. I clipped out the pane/grate over the alcove window to expose the entire area and give the eye something to settle on.
After removing all the bits, sanding it down, and re-priming the exposed plastic, I got some clear styrene and sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to give it a frosted look, then drew out a very tiny version of the famous "Nosferatu" silhouette and glued it to the inside of the "glass." After that, I added a final backing to house a flickering LED, to give the shadow a sinister, sneaky candle-lit look. This WIP shot is with an orange LED I had on hand, but its going to be yellow on the finished product. It also will have a flicker effect to simulate a candle, which you obviously can't see in a picture.
Lastly, I created a "ceiling" for the kit that will serve as the access for the battery and the wiring. I ran all the LED wires up through a hole drilled in just a small sheet of styrene, then bundled everything together and put the battery to the side, so whenever I need to change it, I can just remove the roof and access the compartment.
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