Good sources for backdrops?

I'm planning to install backdrops along the entire perimeter (about 44') of my next round-the-room shelf layout. I've found several websites, but they range from "abandoned" to "promising" to confusing as all heck (a lot of you have probably tried to decipher *that* website). I am interested in hearing about good sources that are currently in business. Hopefully this won't violate forum rules on discussing retailers, as backdrops appear to be pretty much an independent business (more manufacturer than retailer).

 

Maybe no responses because 44' of printed backdrop is expensive. Very expensive. A thought: If folks are coming to see your backdrop maybe you should rethink it. Generally the layout is the most important. Just something to think about.

Another way is do it yourself of course. The tried and true method of 1/8" hardboard is less expensive and will do the job, even for ham fisted no skills guys like myself. Painting is easy, you can't goof up a cloud. Look outside.



After the blue paint try this fun technique using spray cans.



Results are fun. Try it first on a piece of cardboard the go for it on the backdrop.



When your finished you should get something like this:



A small piece of dressbox cardboard is cut into a pattern/template and by moving and reversing it you spray the paint an a cloud appears. Hope this helps. Jim

 

HOexplorer: Thanks for the excellent response!!

"Maybe no responses because 44' of printed backdrop is expensive. Very expensive."

Looking like somewhere between $500 and $1000

"If folks are coming to see your backdrop maybe you should rethink it. Generally the layout is the most important. Just something to think about."

Folks coming to see my layout/backdrop is a non-issue. I'm not the most social person when it comes to my hobby (or anything else really).

"Another way is do it yourself of course. The tried and true method of 1/8" hardboard is less expensive and will do the job, even for ham fisted no skills guys like myself. Painting is easy, you can't goof up a cloud. Look outside."

Wanna see me prove you wrong??

In all seriousness, I have zero interest in scenery work of any kind, so a narrow round-the-walls Unitrack layout for train running (yeah!!) is all I want. Since "I don't do scenery," installation of some good backdrops that require no work/creativity by me (other than lifting my wallet) should fit the bill nicely.

 

Interesting. Do you remember how much the Staples print cost? Was it on heavy photographic paper?

 

I used Backdrop Warehouse. Yeah, the web site is awful. But the product is excellent. And expensive.

I'd do it again. And I used a lot more than forty feet. I'd still do it again. Makes all the difference.

There's a kind of tutorial near the beginning of the thread "The Oakville Sub".

 

That looks great Rick! A little Kato ballast between those tracks and the scene would be complete.

 

Thanks Jim. I took a look at your thread (outstanding work!). The curved corners look really nice. I was just planning to have square corners, but may need to rethink.

 

No big deal to cove them, much easier than I thought...I just screwed one end in the appropriate position, then pushed until I had a nice corner, and popped in a couple more screws...really surprised at how well it went. And it's surprising how tight you can get the corners this way. I actually eased them off from the maximum.

 

Backdrops are so important to me now that I think about them as the first part - not the last part - of scenery. In 35 years I haven't had a scene deeper than 18" to work on, the world has evolved to shelf scenes, and at heart I'm a prototype modeler. I am no artist though.

Back in the early 80s' MR ran an article on backdrops for the Cat Mountain & Santa Fe where they did a very simple 'horizon line' of earth-colored paint blended up to sky blue, and a sky blue top blended down to white at the horizon line. I did that on all my Masonite backdrops on the ATSF layout from the start, and it's worked amazingly well to develop depth. That was a good starting point anyway.

But on top of that, I've experimented with all kinds of things with commercial collages, additional painting, and selected actual photo backdrop elements where appropriate. The big thing I don't do is try to print out sky - the horizon line paint on the original Masonite covers that much.

On the Santa Fe layout the most distinctive scenic feature on several views is the San Francisco Peaks - I have a calendar shot on one view worked into the backdrop, and photos I took of Mars Hill, Mt. Eldon, and the Peaks behind Flagstaff. Also cut out and rubber-cemented to the Masonite backdrop. There's only about a 12" depth here for the entire scene.


I did try commercial backdrop sky and it was a disaster - it bubbled and expanded and contracted. The big discovery was when I found out that if you cut the sky out with an Xacto knife, the commercial stuff worked rather well and I've done a lot of that since.

On my eastern T-trak modules, I shot the backdrops before I ever cut any lumber. I wanted the real places on the backdrops. As these are only 3' long, a normal high-res photo, printed on cardstock with a laser printer, and secured with rubber cement has worked very well. If you cut out all the sky, you don't have to worry about visible joints, so you can piece together the actual lower elements 11" at a time. I edge-paint the cardstock to match the color around it. Special buildings and elements are layered over top, like the actual church there.


I HAVE learned how to use Photoshop a lot. I had to take the Christmas decorations and all the modern wiring off that church. Also I've learned to 'flip horizontal' a backdrop element so that it EXACTLY matches the next one. That tree above the baggage door is a flip-horizontal of the same image to make a perfect transition between elements.

The real lesson is that you match the scenery color to the backdrop colors, not the other way around. Right now I'm doing the West Hickory Bridge, and the module is only 8" deep and 3' long. I shot hi-res backdrop photos off the bridge looking upstream and tested the backdrop idea before I even decided to build the module. The river valley backdrop simply defines the entire effort.

 

I just printed some photos from the real thing and printed it on e normal printer.
Then I glued them together.
For the first step that’s fine for me.
Maybe I overdo it later?

 

Eugen, were those photos you had taken yourself? And being in Switzerland, what made you decide to model the Mohave area? (I live south of there just outside LA.)

 

Hi glennac


I was building the



Horseshoe curve at Caliente


MR January 1990. I have seen the Layout of the Model Railroad Museum in San Diego.

It will fit exactly to my first Diorama.

I started again with the frame and a ½” plywood sheet 40” x 80”. ( 1 x 2 Meter )

Also the 2.5 % grade is similar to LA with distance piece from an old broom-stick

In MR Jan, 90, I found the plan to build the buildings.

I started with the Caliente Store with Northeastern wood. The roof is made from cardboard, overcoat with one layer of a paper handkerchief, like the concrete walls on my first Diorama.

The Gasoline pumps are scratchbuilt from brass.

The Garage is made from 1/8” plywood, covered with Campbell corrugated aluminum.


In July 1996, we spend our holidays in California, from San Francisco, Sacramento, down to San Diego. When my family visits the Universal Studios and Disneyland, I was visiting the first time Caliente, to get more details and the right measurements for my Layout.

I took some photos and sketches from the flange oilers, signal installation details and road signals. I also meet Jerry Huntley, the very friendly postmaster of Caliente. She was able to answer all my open questions.

Back home again I had to tear down the back area. Shorten the broom-stick distance pieces, because the high of the bridge was incorrect and not exactly 13‘and 11“ high.


Sins then I was visiting California about 15 times.
Always visiting Caliente, then up to Tehachapi and the Mojave down to the Cajon.
It’s like my second home! J


I love that area, so I had to build it in my Basement.

 

I dit the same for my Caliente Layout

 

Very impressive.

 

That's just beautiful Eugen.

 

Amazing! It feels like I am "there".