The Dollhouse Tudor Roof

I've always struggled with roofs.  Traditional kit-type roofs never seem to come out quite right.  With this house, my problem was twofold: create an authentic-looking tudor ridge line, and cover up the edges of the balsa.  After examining a few real tudor roofs, I came to the conclusion that three things, in particular, identify a roof as tudor: the thickness of the roof itself, the presence of gable, eave, and ridge line carvings, and, of course, the roofing material itself.  I'll be roofing this house with slate, eventually, but in the meantime...

I created the apex angle, glued my triangle, then taped it in place so I could measure the lengths of the eaves.

I tried dry-fitting several different combinations of carvings.  This is one I rejected.  I usually design my pieces by playing around with different component parts and seeing what happens.

Ultimately, I preferred this corbel.

I started gluing everything in place, from the apex out.

Here, I'm holding up a corbel so I can figure out where, exactly, I want to put it.  I've drawn a light pencil line in the background, indicating where I want to cut.  Creating these pieces was something of an organic process, as I wasn't sure, initially, what would look good.

I taped the piece in place.  It looked good, but something was missing.  I decided I needed something else...but what?

I looked at it from another angle.

And realized I needed to make the piece taller.

While the stain was drying, I put a first coat of copper paint on the drain pipe.  I carved this little piece to hold the pipe in place next to the house.  It'll connect to the gutter at the top.  Once I've had a chance to sand this piece, it'll look a lot smoother and more metal-like.

Here's the drain pipe, posed next to the gutter.  It'll only traverse the length of the first floor.  I taped the top to something so it could dry in place, with nothing fuzzing up the paint.  This is oil-based paint, and it takes forever to dry.

A copper gutter isn't strictly tudor, but this is where the "tudor fantasy" aspect of the project comes into play.