Has anyone out there ever tried these? I am looking for a vibe kind of like the American Flyer Trainorama and saw these. Or does anyone know of anything similar that is still readily available?
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My idea of a good backdrop is to print a photo on good-quality card stock, and then adhere that to thin foam. For the Flyer style, you could use Microsoft Word (of all things) to edit the image to get that same aura (that’s a word I don’t use often!).
I would guess there’s a couple thousand model railroads that have used the Walthers “Instant Horizons” backdrops! They’ve been around since at least the 1970s, maybe even earlier? I can’t right now recall the artist’s name, but it seems to me he did a lot of other stuff too, like a lot of box art for model car kits from the 1960s-70s…maybe even designed some like the old “Red Baron” helmet hot rod I think.
Would it be Tom Daniel?
I think what I like is the bright colors and how the shadows are so obvious.
Would this image be moving in the right direction towards evoking the same feelings?
Just a rough draft, but the issues can be cleaned up if I’m going the right way–and a more suitable photo could be substituted.
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Nice photo @Engine_1988 I am looking for more green. I went ahead and ordered one of those Walthers prints to come in the mail. I don’t have a local shop where I can get one. If I like it, I may order a couple more. Eventually I will need around 15 feet to do what I want
Here is some information on Built-Rite
Thanks, I was just floating the editing style out there to see if it was close–the image itself is just an example, I have grassier ones out there.
I hope that your Walthers backdrop works!
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Those are beautiful! Clean them up a tad, size and join them in Photoshop and find someone who can print them as a continuous roll.
I’ve had a great experience with working with a company from the UK called Wall Sauce. I’m here in the states, but shipping was relatively quick, and pricing was good. But the best advantage is you can choose from hundreds of different photo backgrounds that will bring your layout to life! People will do a double take. You don’t have to go to the ceiling but I did. I’ve had modelers say my backdrop blended in so well that they couldn’t tell where the layout started!
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WOW!!!
Now that is backdrop blending!
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I’ve been to places like that and I can tell you your transition is all but flawless! 
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The Walthers website currently only shows five different backdrops:
https://www.walthers.com/search/?q=instant+horizons
However, as you’ll see on the side of the box when you get the one you bought, there are/were actually 17 different ones. Many are designed to be used together, so in some cases you can string five or six together. For example, the “Tall Timber” ends line up with another “Tall Timber”, or the “Sierra Boomtown (Gold Rush)” . The left side of “Tall Timber” also lines up with “Desert to Mountain Transition”, and the right side works with the “Mountain to Desert Transition”.
It’s generally easier to blend the hills and mountain parts together compared to the sky part; many of us remove the sky and use just the lower part against a sky blue painted backdrop. This is the “Country to Eastern Foothills” one; since my layout is set in early winter, I used white paint to make the grassy / flatter areas of the backdrop look like snow (hopefully!).
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Thank you @wjstix that is exactly what I was thinking about doing, cutting off the printed sky so I could use this with the solid sky blue background that I already have. All along, I have planned to either paint something on the the lower part of my blue panels or paste something. I like how yours looks.
If you have a few cans of different colors of green paint, some scrap cardboard (from larger cardboard boxes) and a good cutting knife you can also make your own backdrops. The thin cardboard can be pressed right up against your blue backdrop. For Example: You can do multiple masking.
Finished product
..or you can cut out hill/mountain shapes from the cardboard spray paint the shapes and fit them in one behind the other to give a sense of hills and distance such as the cutouts to the right of the picture.
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Interesting @mersenne6 that does look good