I am modeling building supply yard. I have used black construction paper for rolls of roofing felt. However, I have not been able to find an acceptable technique to create pallets of roofing shingles. Does anyone have a suggestion on modeling pallets of asphalt roofing shingles?
OK, just of the top of my head, maybe go to a local lumber yard, roofing supplier, or BB store, measure a full pallet of shingles, and with permission, take a few pictures of the sides of the pallets, make a cube of styrofoam, or balsa wood, to the right size, and play with your copier, and try to get your photos scaled right, print, and glue to the sides of the cube, maybe scribe in lines to show the seperate layers, place them on a pallet, and use whatever banding material you can come up with, and attach the “bundles” to the pallet. For banding, I’ve used the 1/32" pinstriping tape, or, another source is the very fine pinstripe tape that finger nail artist use.
You might even find pictures of shingles on line, and use those. Or, there are web sites that have many different pictures of materials that can be printed to your scale, and glued on.
Each bundle of shingles is wrapped in papper, so you won’t actually see the shingle.
I’ve used the photo re-sizing technique for many small projects like signs, gas pumps, posters, etc.
Just a thought. Please show pictures of how your shingles turn out!
Mike.
What if ? you took 400 or 600 wet/dry sand paper; cut to size, and just build acouple skids. You could use craft paper for filler, and the sandpaper on top.
Try to find a ‘real’’ one to get bundle size and pattern, because of weight they are not that big, Perhaps some pallets could be less then full, and a few skids with only a few bundles left.
Or, being that most bundles are wraped, cut some balsa wood theright size and color and stack them on skid.
just thinking
If I remember right, pallets of shingles come with each bundle wrapped in white plastic with consumer labeling on them and these are stacked on the pallet and wrapped in clear plastic with a label or two for shipping. If banded, there would be spacers of wood to protect the shingles.
I love this stuff.
It’s Rustoleum speckled textured spray paint from a hardware store rattle can. I spray it on all my plastic roofing, either flat or simulated shingles. You might try spraying it on a sheet of cardstock and then cutting it up into shingle-sized sheets, touching up the edges with a brush and then stacking and wrapping.
Yes rrebell, and there are 4 bundles to a layer, and usually 15 layers high, for a total of 60 bundles, each one individually wrapped. Each bundle covers 33 1/3 sq.ft. 3 bundles makes a “square”, (the way a roof is measured for shingles) so a pallet holds “20 square” of shingles.
To add the shrink wrap on each pallet would add a nice finishing touch.
Mike.
Welcome to the forums.
A little will depend on your era. Any I have seen, for many years, the bundles are wrapped in brown paper. White paper or plastic may be a new method or specific brand. They certainly have been on pallets for years, but shrink wrap is a relatively new method. I think banding or just stacked on pallets goes back quite awhile. If you go back far enough the bundles may have been handled individually (Oooofff!).
Let us know how things worked out for you.
Good luck,
Richard
Hi Louisville Chuck!
Welcome to the forums!! [#welcome]
I think that Mike’s suggestion to use a printed image of the packages is the easiest solution.
A bundle of shingles is roughly 36" x 12" x 5", and as has been mentioned, there are four bundles per layer x 15 layers. Each layer is stacked with three bundles side by side and the fourth across one end, and the layers are alternated so the fourth bundle ends up on the opposite end of the layer below it.
It shouldn’t be too difficult to make up the images for the sides, ends and tops of the bundles. You no doubt can find an image of a manufacturer’s label so you can get the proper font.
I would suggest making the pallets up in groups the size of each layer of the whole load. In other words, don’t go to the trouble of making a bunch of individual pallet loads. That will make it much easier to have all the pallets lined up evenly like they are in the real world. For added realism, you could use ‘real’ pallets on the bottom of each layer so you can actually see into the load between the pallet layers.
You may want to print up some individual pallets too for use on loading docks, and you could even do a few individual bundles that are being handled at the retailer level.
One thing you might consider if the pallets are going to be on a flat car is adding a bit of weight to the load to bring it up to NMRA recommended practises.
Sounds like a fun project.
Regards
Dave
Good information. Thanks for your help.
As someone who works in the construction industry…
I have not seen a bundle of shingles wraped in paper for about 15 or 20 years now, so I guess it depends a lot on what era you wish to model.
I live in an area where slate roofing was very popular, even on modest homes/buildings until the late 1950’s, so I buildIng supply yard on my layout would be just as likely to have small crates of slates…
We just did a porch roof in rubber slates, they came on pallets stacked pretty high.
The earlier info on a pallet of asphalt shingles is industry standard today…
Sheldon
Louisville Chuck,
[#welcome] To The Forums.
Here’s a pic’ of Asphalt shingles when They were wrapped in paper on pallets. They were not shrink wrapped back then. They were loaded in box cars and Truck flat beds, the same way. They were most always tarped when loaded on flat beds…upright tar paper loads also. With a cardboard top, banded on pallet:
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
http://www.centralmaine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/444290_890577-20151022-HarveyPro4.jpg
BTW: You could also make Your own pallets to the size You want, with Northeastern scale size stripwood, CA’ed together. That’s how these were made for Aluminum coil loads, which were shipped flat.
