Today I received a product that I am very excited to do a review on, the roof ridge tiles from Hansa Systems.
For many years I have tried almost every method I could think of as well as methods others have used to simulate the Spanish roof tile so common in European Countries. In almost all cases, I have failed to simulate them to my liking. The one time I got close was to make every individual tile out of two part epoxy putty; the problem with this is that it was hard to get good quality control so that the tiles fit together properly.
Well, for all those who have wanted a way to simulate a realistic Spanish tile roof, I have good news for you! Let me introduce you to Hansa Systems USA and their part #127 - Roof Ridge Tiles!
Hansa Systems USA has put a lot of time and effort into creating plastic modeling parts for those of us who like to scratch build our structures. While they have many parts to choose from, I do believe part #127 is my favorite as this style of roof is hard to model realistically with other methods.
To start with, all the pieces are molded in several shades of terracotta tones. This will help with building a realistic looking roof with many different shades to it. Also, maybe the best part for some of you out there, these products are molded from styrene just like the rest of your model kits. This means you do not need any special adhesive to assemble the parts as you should have some liquid cement on your shelf already.
The second thing that I like about Hansa Systems, is the fact that they build up like legos that we all played with as kids. The roof ridge tiles have locating pins on the back to help you aline them properly on the roof lathe of a building. Hansa Systems also sells a rafter system for use with these tiles and the pins line up with the rafters for a perfect fit.
Construction with these tiles is fast and accurate, which is nice if you have a large surface of roof to cover as I do with the Italian House I am building. To build the roof with the correct construction, you will have to remove the locating pins from every other row of tiles. This is easily done with sprue cutters and a round file. This will give the right look to the roof that many modelers forget or neglect to research about this style of roof.
I am very impressed with these tiles and will for sure be using them for the Italian House project as well as many other projects in the future. Below you will see a preview of what these tiles will look like once in place on the house.
A big thank you goes out to Peter with Hansa Systems USA for sending me these samples of this wonderful product. I look forward to using many more of his items and encourage all of you readers to go to his site and order some of these, you will not be disappointed!
The Roof Ridge Tiles come is sets of 25 tiles for $3.00 plus shipping, a very low cost item even for a large roof to tile.
Check them out as well as the rest of their items at: http://www.hansasystemsusa.com/index.htm
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