A high of 45 degrees

45° roof slopes have been present in LEGO® sets for a very, very long time. Nearly the full array of pieces we know today were introduced in roof tile supplementary boxes in 1958. So for a new 2X2 45° slope to appear 55 years later is kind of surprising, and most welcome. 

Roof Tile 2X2X1 45 Degr. - Bot. 45 Degr.

Element ID 6034676 | Design ID 13548

This Light Bluish Gray / Medium Stone Grey element comes in 70009 Worriz' Combat Lair, and the Chima theme also provides Dark Brown versions in 70008 Gorzan's Gorilla Striker and 70014 The Croc Swamp Hideout. NCS fans can doubly rejoice as it will also come in Blue / Bright Blue in 70404 King's Castle.

Its most striking feature is the triangular facet which is a perfect equilateral, or as perfect as I could measure with a standard ruler. This surprises me a lot, given the 5:6 ratio of LEGO bricks and the difficulty in matching diagonals when using them.

Taking the triangle one step further, I created this neat sub-model with SNOT and some 1X1 plates to fill gaps at the rear. Once I have 24 of this element I’ll attempt to make a rhombicuboctahedron!

[EDIT: I finally did this, seven years later.]

This simple combination highlights the beauty of this facet. With Brick 2X2 W. Angle 45 Degrees below it and Corner Brick 2X2/45° Outside above, we will have a way to cap the corner facet and taper to a single point at the top.

Combining it just with Corner Brick 2X2/45° Outside creates another pleasing shape which will tessellate, which would make a cool SNOT wall for a sci-fi MOC.

There are plenty of other interesting combinations with different 45° slopes. My apologies for mixing old grey in this pic! Surely I own these in bley...somewhere...?

Note the similarity with Roof Tile 4X2 W. Angl./Sl.Bot, the key difference being that part has an irritating gap of 1 plate along the long edge, destroying the symmetry and of course that equilateral triangle.

And finally here is a quick tablescrap for a church window, utilising the beauty of the underside of this piece.

I hope these suggested techniques whet your whistle for using this new part.

READ MORE: Pair this part with the angled 2x2 corner tile