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Cody’s Workshop: Episode 15 - right-of-way details
California Sky is a great blue for Back Drops. Look for it at the Home Depot
Cody, thanks for the history lesson on fascia, much appreciated. I used painted 1x6 planks once as fascia, I wouldn’t recommend it. Keep up the great work…Omaha?
I can recall when few layouts had fascia, and indeed even some of the nicest and most complete layouts were actually fairly crude looking in terms of scrounged and worn-looking wood being visible and unpainted. But going way back to a very famous article in MR (famous because it was reprinted in one of Kalmbach’s popular “Introduction to Scale Model Railroading” booklets back in the 1950s), was “Layout in a Fortnight” in December 1951. It had a Masonite “apron” that extended from the edge of the layout right down to the floor, giving it a very finished appearance – it was built in an apartment living room so it had to look presentable. I suspect the builders found it frustrating if they needed access to the bottom of the layout, but it certainly looked neat and clean, neater than anything else I can recall from that era.
There may well have been fascia as we known it of some kind before then but it might be that this popular article did quite a bit to further the cause of a neatly finished appearance. The problems (not mentioned in the article, but predictable) of having the Masonite extend right to the floor presumably soon gave way to the idea of a uniform narrow upper fascia that gave much of the same finished appearance, plus practical access to the layout.
Another photo in that same issue shows a layout with the thin edge of the plywood extending out, but what looks like curtains down below hiding the legs and wiring and other stuff. It was fairly common to see the 1x4 of the outside framing in what could be thought of as a type of fascia board, but again, rarely painted or stained for uniformity or attractive appearance, so not intended to be fascia.
Another thing you saw a lot of back then was scenery that sort of curved down to hide the edge of the layout; it looked very improbable as scenery but was an early attempt to make things look clean and finished even though it gave many layouts a decidedly odd appearance in terms of reali
Great show again, Cody!
Gee, your hands seem to be looking so much nicer these days. I’ll bet your wife has something to do with that. (Hehehe)
Cheers!
Greg
Hi Cody,
Thinking about that sky backdrop topic … Does anyone make pre-printed clouds that could just stick onto a painted blue backdrop? That really sounds like a great product!
Cheers,
Greg
Hi Cody,
How do you decide which adhesive to use? I notice you used CA to join wood to wood, but why switch to epoxy when joining wood to styrene? Does it really matter or is it just another product endorsement? Thanks for all the great tips!
Hey Cody - so more great ideas and tips to keep us going… Thanks for the efforts and advise.