◆ Clay
Courses of straw bundles, each overlapping the one below with a ragged edge. Thatched cottages, barns and village roofs for tabletop terrain.
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Five courses of thatch on every repeat, each one a band of long straw bundles that thickens toward its ragged lower edge and hangs over the course below, like the roof of a village cottage or a hobbit barn. Roll it into air-dry clay or foam for cottage, barn and tavern roofs in medieval and fantasy villages, or into polymer clay for fairy houses, dollhouse cottages and gingerbread-style ornaments.
Made with our free texture roller tool, not modelled by hand: we drew the pattern in code as a seamless picture, uploaded it, and set a roller 30 mm across and 80 mm long with an 8 mm bore, the pattern raised 1.5 mm and repeated twice round and twice along. The zip holds the roller and the tool's own fork handle with its two retaining pins, as two STL files, plus the pattern picture, so you can remake the roller at another size or depth.
Every roller in this set is the same size and fits the same 131 mm handle, so you print the handle once and after that only rollers: pull the two pins, swap the roller, push the pins back in.
Shown as a 3D render of the printed roller in its handle on the clay it has pressed, not a photo.
Print the roller standing on its end and the handle and pins lying flat, all as exported, no supports.
Set the roller between the arms of the fork and push one pin through each arm into its bore, hex head outwards; the roller turns on the pins.
Roll the clay to an even thickness first: 4 to 6 mm for terrain and slabs, 2 to 3 mm for jewellery and ornaments.
Roll across once, in one direction, with steady, even pressure, and lift off at the end. Going back and forth doubles the pattern.
Pull the pins to swap to another roller from the set, and wash the roller in warm soapy water after use.
Print details
| Works with | Clay |
|---|---|
| Printed parts | 4 |
| Size (W x D x H) | 32 x 32 x 80 mm |
| Print bed needed | 151 x 131 mm, 81 mm tall |
| Filament | ~68 g |
| Layer height | 0.2 mm |
| Infill | 20% |
| Supports | Not needed |
| Download | ZIP: roller + fork handle and 2 pins (2 STL) + pattern picture (PNG) + print sheet + README |
| Added | 2026-09-28 |
Made with the free Texture roller generator. Upload your own shape and get the same kind of tool built from it, in your browser.
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Roll air-dry clay about 4 mm thick and texture it with the courses running across the roof, the ragged edges pointing down. Cut two panels a little wider than the building so they overhang, let them firm up, and lay them on a card frame, then round the ridge with a roll of clay.
Basecoat a dark straw brown, drybrush a warm ochre and then a pale straw colour, heaviest on the ragged edges. Old thatch goes grey and green, so a thin grey-green wash near the eaves and a little moss flock on the ridge make it look weathered.
Yes. Every roller in this set is 80 mm long and 30 mm across at the base, with an 8 mm bore, and every zip carries the same fork handle and pins, so you print the handle once and swap rollers by pulling the two pins.
About 2 h 40 min for everything on a current printer at 0.2 mm layers: about 1 h 15 min for the roller and 1 h 30 min for the handle and pins. Once you have the handle, each new roller is only the first part. The times are estimated from the parts' volume, not sliced.
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