About two weekends ago I posted a picture of where I was at on my diorama and I was asked if I would share some of my techniques on how I painted my backdrop. Here is my version of a step by step of painting Montana Mountains.
Note: I’m not a painter and this was my first backdrop that I have ever done. Actually it is the first thing that I have ever painted. So that being the case I believe anyone could do what I have done.
Here is my photo of my diorama right now at the point that I am at. The last thing that I have done on it was the cardboard grid with masking tape as a base for my plaster scenery just like the way that Joe Fugate shows on his 4th video.
Some people think that the backdrop isn’t an important piece to the puzzle but they are few. Most of us are here to make our layouts look as real as we can, and I fall into that category. My goal for this diorama is mainly practice for when I do get the chance for a real layout and for photographing my fleet on something more than my computer desk. So with that I wanted something that would be a good background.
One thing that was real important to my work was to have actual pictures of the area with the time and season that I wanted to model. Try to have pictures of both directions too. This came easy for me since I lived just around the corner from the location and took the pictures myself. If you can’t get to the location then you know that you can find it online.
My backdrop is made from 1/8 Masonite that I primered twice with Kilz from the Home Depot.
Once primered I grabbed a whole mess of color swatches from the Ho Po, took them home and tried to match them up with my photos of the Montana Sky. everyone knows that the Montana sky is different than places like Los Angeles (Where I live now), Montana’s sky is blue.
Once I found the blue that works for me, it was back to Ho Po for the paint. I covered the whole area with two coats of the blue just like I did with the primer.
Next with my badger airbrush and some white paint from Modelflex, I airbrushed on the haze that the sky gets as it gets closer to the ground. Take a look outside, you’ll see what I mean. I tried to use a model paint that you can spay on from Walmart but it didn’t work very good at all. So hopefully you have an airbrush, if not then you better get one in this hobby. Maybe the rattle can effect works for you, just not for me.
Taking my photos, I traced with a pencil where I wanted my mountains to go. Once I figured that out I then figured where my scenery would go next, as in how high.
Back to the color swatches and photos to see what the dirt, trees, and grass colors were, bought the paint and with a standard paintbrush of about 2 inches, painted a base coat.
My next step was my most important one of all: I stole a common kitchen cleaning sponge from my wife, cut off a corner to make a small wedge-like piece. I made about 3 different sizes but still keeping them real small. These wedges would become my sponges for making my trees.
Click on the picture above and see the texture and shape that the sponge effect makes. I liked it, and you might too. Hand painting every tree just seemed too hard.
The most important thing in painting is to remember that when looking at a picture the trees poke up in front of the hills that are behind, so it is best to work from the back to the front. So I started on the back mountains first. Using acrylic paints, I mixed on a paper plate some colors together to what I thought was the color I needed. Remember when doing hills or Mountains in the background they appear lighter with more of a blue color.
I then worked on the next hill on the left side which in this area seemed to be darker then my front mountain. With this mountain you could start seeing the definition of the trees, so I grabbed my smallest sponge wedge and mixed a dark green/blue to match the color of the darkest spot on the hill, followed by the lighter color from the same hill. This gives depth of the trees.
Remember to have the trees lap up into the sky as well as the back hills.
The last hill is the most important because it takes up most of my background. I used the same technique with first sponging on the darkest color first working to the lightest. Since I want my diorama to be at noon day, like my photos, which showed the trees having a yellow tint to them. So randomly I sponged the area with a green/yellow lightly over the mountain.
The last thing that I worked on after I goofed around with the mountain’s grass and bushes, was the cut on the highway. Once again it was back to the photos and swatches to match up the colors. I painted the base color then added in dark lines to be the grooves.
Now, as long as my trees that I install on the scene are close to the colors of my painted trees and I make the closer trees to the front lighter, it should really bring my backdrop to life and look endless behind my train.
Actually, I wasn’t trying to make this a brag-about-me thread; I just wanted to give back to the forum since there has been many of you that have helped me learn all about this hobby.
My hopes is that we all can use this thread to give ideas and tips on easy ways to create backdrops to help out layouts look more realistic. So please, everyone show your backdrops that you are proud of and give us some good tips to learn from.
[bow]You da MAN!! I’ve been hoping someone would do a thread on this! Between this and Chucks cloud and structure thread, I know what I’m going to doing for the next couple weeks.
Sorry, but I think that after reading my own words I believe I didn’t really tell about the paint.
For the last year I have been painting the inside of my in-law’s house and all but the sky’s blue I already had available. My other colors that I used were a green from Behr and a brown.
I would pour about a 1/2 of a cup full onto my paper plate, and then take my acrylics which I bought at Aaron Brother’s paint store for about $5 bucks each, and guessingly add amount to the Behr paint until it matched my picture.
Of course there were times that I didn’t like what I put on the backdrop, but the great thing about paint is that you can paint right over it. That was the case with my far background hills.
Here take a look: (Make sure you click on the picture to enlarge them)
See how the first picture my far hills are a green color and not very realistic. I didn’t like them at all so I simply mixed up more of a blue mix and over painted them.
I was just using Anitas Craft Paint on the practice stuff I tried today. Can’t beat 50 cents a bottle. I see I’m going to have to experiment with different shapes and sizes of sponges, but it’s working pretty good so far.
Is that a Rix bridge your putting in? Do you like it? I’m thinking about an 8’ long over pass on part of my layout. I need a place to put all my cheap Wally World cars and trucks.[:P]
What a great thread - Well done and excellent work. I love the tree stamps. Zak good to see that friends in low places think alike. On my HO layout, I used Woodland Scenic foliage for stamps and did this:
Those commercial backdrops are beautiful from BACKDROP WAREHOUSE. But they are expensive. I used one on their website as a template for my tree stamps on my old layout. BTW Loathar - The craft paint at Wally World for 44 cents rocks. By every shade of green you can find and yellow and browns. Go at it…Again if you make mistakes (my middle name) - Here comes the blue sky on a roller!
Zak - Please do the overpass thread! - I need to re-do mine, I used basswood and cut the supports from styrene, but I don’t like the pavement on the bridge. Need help there. I also have a website where you can make scale interstate signs, offramps, exits, mileage and more I can pass along to you - It’s embedded somewhere on this site if you search for it.
If you guys can wait for two weeks I then can take you step by step on building them with the exact sizes of styrene. Honestly, I kept putting off building those bridges because I was scared. Once I got a game plan and figured out what I needed for material, they just came together.
Chuck, I still really like your trees, but the problem with Montana is the if your aren’t in the mountains with the pines you are in the flatlands with the grass. Actually I take that back, there are areas that the MRL tracks run by the Yellowstone River which is surrounded by those kind of trees.
