Last night, I used my color laser to print out a couple of clouds from some pictures. I glued them to poster board then temporarily fastened them to blue background. See the attached picture. What I am wondering in is how you put clouds in the sky on your layout. It also gives way to another poll. I am also thinking that on those parts of the layout where you cannot look down the background along it's edge, one could have some of the clouds away from the background a 1/4 inch or so and get some kind of 3d effect. Thoughts? Thanking you in advance, Joe
For my NTRAK backboards I usually just airbrush over blue, a hazy white feathering up from the horizon to total blue at the top. Then I spray a fuzzy nebulous horizon of trees along the bottom. I play around with stencils sometimes for photo backdrops.
I made a basic diorama for a clinic I presented on background trees that used white spray paint near the horizon and blue spray paint toward the top of the backdrop…not clouds, just haze…but I liked the effect. For clouds, I copied a picture from someone’s file that I thought was an awesome example of cloudwork on a backdrop. Someone had posted a pic of their proposed engine facility and had set out a large fleet of about a dozen and a half red (or maybe red orange) diesels and a few slugs in the area to show what it might look like. On the backdrop were these wonderful painted clouds and some hills and trees in the distance. There was a green bridge at the left hand side of the picture. Don’t know whose it was but it was titled “clouds06” and was posted 2/21/06. Maybe someone recognizes their work and would post it here? (I’m reluctant to post someone else’s pic without their permission.)
I do not use clouds on my backdrop. My main reason is that in order to effectively emnhancing the sense of disctance the clouds needs to become much denser and smaller down at the horizon. This to me adds a lot of clutter and distraction where I don't want it, which is close to the trains. This picture (sorry for the big size...) shows what I mean... Cheers Dirk
Yes beautiful shot,nearly as good as this one,big down load but well worth the wait. If you look closely,you can follow the trails all the way up & down through the mntn ridge/ranges.High Colorado mountains! http://www.binderbulletin.org/images/deer_creek_pano.jpg
sure... I use a combination of techniques that start with a stencil and spray bombs. After getting a shape I then soften things with overspray. I just painted clouds on my daughter's bedroom walls with an airbrush and I must admit they came out pretty good.
Heres my first attempt at painting clouds. I still have a ways to go practicing before I spill paint on my backdrops. I am finding that painting backdrops is a whole hobby contained within the train thing. Fun but not sure if I want to adopt another fixation. I did try some decal clouds my wife picked up for me at a craft store. At first I thought this would be the cheap and easy way to go but soon realized they looked even "faker" than my painted on ones. Commerically produced backdrops would be the ideal way to go but theres that dang thing called "cost" that keeps me from going that way. Brian
I hand painted my clouds. It seems like a layout never has a rainy day or ominous clouds overhead, Hmm? Here are some sample below. and a link to my progress http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4961
