What and where is the least expensive way to make background scenes along the rear of your layout?
I have some good photos I could use to make a continuing mural using photoshop.
How do you make your background flats?
Until some real experts come in to discuss photoprinting long strips to stitch together photo-backgrounds, I will hijack this thread a bit to wonder if tilt-shifted photographs would make a background blend in together with foreground models?
For my children’s Youth in Model Railroading city module we just glued a photo of clouds to 1/8" masonite. Actually the clouds are smooshed vertically, but since they are clouds it is impossible to tell.
Those are nice clouds. ROAR
Here is backdrop of LION’S Smith 9th Street Station.
LION stand on actual platform in NYC, and makes panographic shots of brookly skyline. Him uses Serif Panoramic software (any good photo software will do) to stitch them into once single photo about 8" tall by 72" long.
Him prints it on a color laser copier on 17 x 11 paper and glues them to the backdrop. USE A GLUE that will not wrinkle the paper. LION likes silicone caulk, but others think that is tacky (glue) the way to go. A laser printout is better than an inkjet printout since it will not run when it gets wet. Of course peeps with inkyjets can fix it with something, but LION recommends taking the file to a place that had Laser printers and get it done there on a nice cardstock.
ROAR
I use commercial backdrops and cut the sky off, then glue them to the wall that is painted a sky blue. You could also print your own building photos on good quality paper and cut them out. The cost will depend on how big your layout is and how much backdrop you want to use.
I believe Staples will print something for you on a continuous sheet of paper or vinyl. You provide the art work, which you can make on your computer by stitching your photos together, bring it to them on a CD or thumb drive, and they’ll print a seamless backdrop for a pretty reasonable price.
I’ve heard about that and was what I was getting at in the first post.
How long and how high can Staples make it?
How much do they charge?
Here is a link: http://www.staples.com/sbd/content/copyandprint/banners.html
They call this “banner printing.” S, M, L and XL, with the XL being 8 feet wide by 2 1/2 feet high. $25 for the 8-foot size, $20 for the 6-foot, and so on.