Being I’m not an artist, I was considering getting a few of those pre-printed backdrop scenes. I have found some that are pricey and some that are cheap. I would really prefer to have them painted on the wall, but that would require hiring an artist/painter…comments?
I am by far not an artist either but it isn’t as difficult as you might think. I have been doing a lot of research on backdrops. and firs toff paint the wall of your train room a neutral color blue. Before you do that realize one thing there is no perfect sky. Over the course of the next couple of days spend some time looking at the sky you’ll tend to see that it changes every day and some times several times per day as well. Same with the clouds. I don’t lie a real busy back drop for the most part. Sky blue with a few clouds scattered here and there.There is one area on the layout where I want to depict a town off in the distance and I just saw a very easy way to do it using two different photo backdrops and some building flats. The first backdrop on the wall or the highest one up is nothing but trees and then the photo backdrop of the town is put over the tree back drop but down about 2/3’s and then the building flats in front of the town back drop and then some 3D back drop structures. I sounds harder then it is and the end result give you a nice forced perspective and some depth. One thing I forgot to mention is I cut all the sky portions off of the photo back drops and use the blue painted cloud walls of the train room. This way you don’t pick up that sharp straight line of the paper and it also is a more consistent looking sky. In my opinion you want the backdrop to be subtle and not draw too much attention away form the trains.
As far as artist painted backdrops very few look any where close to looking real or believable form all of the one’s I’ve ever seen. There are a lot of people who call themselves artist who really don’t have a clue and especially when it comes to stuff we want done.
I think it depends on the local you’re modeling and is there visible “stuff” behind the trains other than sky?
I’m modeling western NY, western PA and it’s a hilly region where you can see “stuff” beyond your immediate viewing area.
Based on that I went with backdrops from Backdrop Warehouse. Each 12" x 10’ backdrop was about $40 when buying them 3 at a crack. I don’t think that price was outrageous given the quality…
I could see myself trying to paint all that! LOL!
Talk about a big time mess that would be!
Well, there are different ways to do a backdrop and it depends on what real world location you are trying to model.
For my last layout, which was set in Colorado, I used the Walthers background scenes and cut the sky off of them, then glued them to the blue painted walls. It was a lot of work but it turned out really well.
On my current layout, located in eastern hill country, I decided to try and paint some distant hills. I dabbed the different colors on with a sponge and then sprayed some white spray paint on it in various places to simulate mist. Not as detailed as the Walthers backgrounds, but acceptable to me this time. Then I did use a couple of commercial backdrops and cut off the sky for use in selected areas. Mostly buildings.
When painting them yourself, if you mess up, you can paint over them until you get it the way you want. I think there is a Kalmbach book that covers backdrop painting fairly well.
From this link, you can find pictures of my current layout and my previous layout that both show the backdrops.
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzescsbb/HO_MRR/C&A-Main-Page.html
Backdrops
Pro - It changes a train set into a real world location, even if you just paint blue sky it helps. If you try to add something else and don’t think it’s good enough, just start over.
A printed commercial gives more detail than you could paint but still looks like a printed backdrop.
Con - Your time, money for paint and brushes, or printed set.
Have a go at painting, use the guide in Model railroader or a book on the subject.
You might just be the next Picasso.
As noted earlier there are several options. There are sites like this one, that produce a high detail backdrop: http://backdropwarehouse.com/SITEINDEX.htm
You could also take your own pictures and have them printed at a print or sign shop.
Thanks for the tips. I painted the room sky blue before I built the bench work. It’s a duck under and covers three walls, so I’m going to try the pictures and cut out the skys and paint my own clouds…thanks again.
Backdrops can be tricky because you run into perspective problems. A backdrop objects like a building or road might look right viewed dead on but might look weird viewed from the side. To get around this it helps to represent things as if they are further away. That is, make the horizon line lower. If you have buildings make them small, say an inch or two high. Clouds can be tricky also because real ones are 3D and painted ones are 2D. What some modelers have done to get around the cloud issue is to paint subtle white streaks as opposed to individudal white puffy clouds. To do this, while your blue paint is still wet, brush on some horizontal white streaks and work them in.
Lance Mindheim
Visit Miami’s Downtown Spur at www.lancemindheim.com
I just finished a backdrop re-paint using this technique last weekend. It’s pretty easy to do and the results were good even coming from this inept painter. Here’s a sample section. The material is masonite:
The benchwork will be re-mounted over the seam at the bottom, covering up that area. I was surprised at how much this adds to the sense of place in my layout. I’d encourage anyone to strongly consider adding painted backdrops even though it is a bit more work.
I think that looks pretty good O’Dave. That’s what I was trying to explain.
Lance
I prefer to keep the backdrop as plain and simple as possible. If something has to be against it, then I will try to make it 3-D as much as possible.
My layout is in the attic, so the main areas of it are under a sloped ceiling. I can’t put any kind of printed background on that, it would look silly. So at the scene divider I’m putting in on the peninsula, I’m going to use low relief hills on one side, and some 3-D flats for the town on the other.
When I do have to have something flat on the board, I like to use photos of models rather than prototype buildings. Since these are typically photographed under similar lighting conditions, they blend better with the foreground scenery, and look like an extension of the modeled world.
Lee
Nice Paint Job O’Dave. What technique did you use?
Backdrops just take practice, like weathering, here’s one I started on my layout.mike h.
Thanks guys! Here’s a wider view:
It’s basically the “wet technique” Lance described above. You do everything while the paint is still wet. This is what I did, but it can probably be simplified:
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Get two shades of sky blue paint, one dark, one light. You could also use white paint for the light shade.
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Put each shade in its own roller pan and use separate rollers for each
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Get three paint brushes. One will be the dark brush, one the light brush, and one is the “blender” brush
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Work your way along the backdrop 24" at a time.
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Roll the top 2/3 of the backdrop in dark
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Roll the bottom 1/3 in light.
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Brush out the dark paint on top with the dark brush, stopping just short of the light border
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Likewise with the light brush.
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Take the “blender” brush and blend the two shades together at the border. I work the light up and the blue down in a varying band 4-6" wide - not going too far up into the dark or too far down into the light. Then I brush across it until it looks good.
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Move down the backdrop 24" more and repeat.
The trick is to know when to stop - it should be when the paint is getting too dry or when you start thinking “I can make it perfect if I just do this”. The “this” is usually one try too far[:)] . I told my 6 year old to tell me “just leave it, Dad” whenever I start muttering things under my breath.
As others have mentioned, it takes practice, but the learning curve is not too steep, IMHO. And you can always paint over your mistakes.
Lots of opinions on this topic. Photos, cutouts, flats, or painted. I prefer painted backdrops that are not too detailed. I just want the hint of land and sky back there. No buildings, unless they are small and far distant. The problem with details is perspective. They may look great from one angle and really weird from another angle. One of the MR books makes a point of suggesting too much detail steals the show from the trains. So I have sky, some clouds, a few hills and fields, roads winding into the distance, and a stream coming from around a hill. Trees are pretty simple – various green splotches with a trunk showing through here and there. I have never seen a photo backdrop that I liked.
Whatever works for you, go with it. Sometimes it’s just the photo that makes or breaks it. I did my own includign taking pic and many others have done the same.
Now what radius is that curve.I like it.
It’s 22 inch. You have to match your rolling stock to the curves you are using. The other layout section is undergoing an upgrade to 27-30 inch.
To O’Dave
Thanks for the great instructions. I think even I can do this.
D