I recently built 1 X 3 framing and covered it with inlaid vinyl flooring with the shiny finished side glued to the wood frame. I applied 3M spray adhesive to both the flooring and the Walther’s 36in X 24in paper scenes. I had good luck positioning the first one and the second was not so easy with some minor wrinkling. The third was around a curved corner and it came out really badly with quite a bit of wrinkling.
Two days later they were all blistered and wrinkled and a few days later they began to peel off. Now, I have used a heat gun to help completely remove them and I think I need to rip off the vinyl and start over. Disappointing to say the least, particularly since for once, I followed the manufacturers directions! Ha!
I just bought some rubber cement from Staples after reading another manufacturers directions. Anyone have other suggestions for a little easier application and more permanence? I have 18 of these to install so I would like to get it right. Thanks guys(& gals)
Since the side you are trying to glue to is the side which normally goes on the floor, you might try vinyl adhesive with either a paint brush or a very small notched trowel. The good news is that you can get a quart for around $5 . They bad news is that whatever you glue with it will be hard to get off. I’ve used it to glue large areas of scenery.
The problem is you’re using an adhesive that’s hard to work with. If you have colorfast backdrops the easiest adhesive to use is wallpaper paste. If you’ve ever installed wallpaper, you need a sealed, smooth surface, and the brushes to install the wallpaper. The wide brush with the short bristles is the one you use for working out the wrinkles, not possible when using contact or rubber cement.
Thanks for the good suggestions guys. I was hoping to hear from somone who has installed these Walthers backgrounds and had good results. I think I will try painting the rough side of the vinyl and using the wallpaper paste.
We have used the wallpaper paste for them. They were installed on primed masonite. Of coarse, one member that hangs paper did the job and they look excellent.
Well guys, I hate to complain about the quality of free advice on this forum, but to help some other modeler avoid a minor disaster, I must relate my latest experience:
I decided to try the wallpaper paste method of attaching Walthers backdrops to primed masonite. In a word, it doesn’t work!
First I applied the paste to the back side of the scene and tried to apply to the masonite. The paper fell apart in my hands as I tried to line up the edges, but I managed to get most of it on the masonite and it didn’t look too bad with only a few wrinkles. Five minutes later it was growing large blisters and many huge wrinkles.
For the next sheet I decided to apply the paste more sparingly, and to the masonite instead of the paper, figuring this would give more time to align the paper before it started to self-destruct! That worked pretty well… for about five minutes. Then the severe wrinkles came again. I let it dry down hoping they would shrink away, but they didn’t. Now, I have successfully done a little paper hanging in my day, but have never seen such a mess as this.
At that point I read the instruction sheet again. And lo and behold, they stated “Do not use any water-based adhesive!”, which only goes to prove once again the old adage of: Read the instructions.
Sorry about the delay in trying the suggested ideas, but I don’t get much time to work on my layout. At this rate I should be done in about 2020 or so. I will get some more scenes and will try the contact cement on the primed masonite. These things must be good sellers for Walthers as I know I’ve ruined a whole bunch of them! All part of the fun!
I have used a latex based contact cement with good results. I mount them in two steps.
First, I paint the Masonite backdrop with a light blue latex wall paint.
I use the latex contact cement to mount the backdrop to a sheet of very stiff cardstock (about 60 lb stock). I apply the contact cement to both surfaces and let it dry as per the instructions.
Then I cut out the sky area leaving only the background area to mount.
I apply a thin coating of regular Elmers glue to the back of the cardstock and apply the backdrop to the Masonite. The thick cardstock keeps the printed sheet from wrinkling and also gives the scene a little depth.
A bit of extra effort, but the results have been good and have stood the test of time ( a couple of years).
Your best bet by far is to have them dry-mounted to foamcore and then attach the foamcore to your 1x3s. For the curved ones, you can carefully make slits in the back of the foamcore and this will allow you to curve them with good results.
Drymounting is done by any framing shop and some other shops. Since you have a quantity, if you call around you’ll get a reasonable price. Its not cheap but it s a final solution - NO wrinkles, etc.
I have five of them up. two are applied to a piece of shiny white masonite with spray adhesive—I won’t do that again. I have even used a hard rubber roller trying to get it to flatten out. If I take pictures at just the right angle the bubbles like 3-D clouds. they look terrible in person. At least I can throw the piece of masonite, backdrop and all out. The other three are backdrops for a city scene and engine servicing facilities. I used double sided 3M poster tape all around the outside edges and a couple of long strips in the centers, probably two feet long, and applied them directly to the wall, which is painted flat sky blue. They have not come off yet. I put them up over a year ago. My layout is in my insulated and heated garage directly on the wall, except the ones that are applied to the sides of the furnace, which don’t get warm, but it is baked enamel. I cut them and fit them around the various corners. It is not as bad as it sounds as it is mostly hidden by tall and large buildings. They came out quite well relative to the beige colored furnace. As time and funds permit and I install more, I will use the poster tape again. It works nicely and it is semi-permanant. Be sure your hands are very clean when pressing and rubbing the backdrops to whatever you are sticking them to.
[1] When I get to the backdrop & backgrounds this time around, I am planning to use the diorama techniques outlined in “Scenery for Model Railroads, Dioramas & Miniatures” by Robert Schleicher…
To capsulize the backdrop chapter, there are up to (4) “layers of backdrops” separated by 1"x1" blocks at the backdrop base…
– The suggested background material is the cheapest 3’-wide continuous linoleum roll, with no flowery pattern, for a “no pattern bleed-through” that you can find, with the finished side mounted to the 6"-spaced back supports.
– Masonite is also suggested if the backdrop width is 8’ or less which can also be smooth-curved at square corners without seam cracks.
– For viewing perspective, the last backdrop is for the blue-sky painted backdrop. The closer of up to (3) backdrops have their tops all placed successively at eye level and they are shaped to the contour of the hilltops or foliage before painting or gluing on photomural backgrounds.
– The building flats and/or terrain is brought up to the closest of the up to (4) backdrops. This means finishing each backdrop before adding the next backdrop layer.
– The suggested material here for gluing backgrounds to the backdrop is rubber cement.
– Primary track-lighting comes from an overhead valance. There is also lighting from below the blue-sky painted backdrop for an horizon effect, and; this would mean
60yokid , I have found over the years of helping my wife with doll houses that there are a few doll house wallpaper paste’s that work well. I happen to have some called Millies’ , but I think there are one or two available in the dollhouse section of your local Hobby Lobby.
It is usually clear and slippery so you have time to move the backdrop around until you get it where you want it and is easy to clean up the edges (just don’t get too carried away with the wet sponge).
One thing I didn’t see suggested is spray adhesive. I have done about 10’ of computer printed backdrop without any problem. You just spray the adhesive per the directions and stick it to your material (I just apply to painted drywall). The only other suggestion would be to paint a small matching color to where your seams are.
Well, I asked the Walthers representative at the Green Bay train meet last month about my problem of how to fasten their backdrops. She indicated she couldn’t care less, since she was not in that department. (God forbid that she would take the time to get my name and phone and have someone call me back!)
I decided to try the method suggested by “Backdrop Warehouse” using Elmer’s “No Wrinkle” Rubber Cement from Staples. I know their product is on better quality paper because I looked at it during the show. But, I wanted the taller Walthers scenes.
I had abandoned the vinyl flooring and installed masonite with one coat of latex based primer. I coated the back of the paper and the primed masonite with the Rubber Cement. The backdrops went on with a lot of difficulty as far as placement, but getting the wrinkles out was not too difficult. I was a happy camper…for about three days! Then we had a little midwest humidity, and now I have wrinkles up the cazoo!
I have stopped the project again and will try to iron out the wrinkles with an iron.
Thanks for the helpful suggestions of the last few days guys, I really appreciate it and will probably use some of them when I get back to this project, if I ever do!
Now I’m thinking seriously about getting an Artist friend to paint it for me.
I installed this photo backdrop on my layout on Sunday. It is an E-Z Kut product available through the Backdrop Warehouse. I went to the local Ace Hardware and bought a small bucket of Golden Harvest GH-34 wallpaper paste for unpasted wallpaper. I applied the paste with a combination of a 4" wide short nap roller and a 2" paint brush. When I placed the backdrop onto the wall, there was enough adhesion for the photo to stay in place, but it was loose enough for me to slide it into the correct position. I smoothed it out with a wallpaper brush and a clean paint roller. No wrinkles, no bumps, nothing but satisfaction and a smile on my face from the results.
I really think that you can’t beat a nice painted backdrop. That way you can be sure of a color match with your scenery for one thing. Nothing highly detailed is needed. Just some hills and a few distant trees. The secret is to mute the colors with pale blue to get the impression of distance. You don’t have to be an artist to be successful.
The backdrops that we used were Faller. Apparantly they aren’t affected by the pre mixed wallpaper paste. It’s good to know that the wallpaper paste won’t work on the Walther’s ones. Too bad you had to find out the hard way on this.
