I put a couple of my Sceniking backdrops up temporarily, and today for no reason turned on a blacklight I happen to have in my train room. Wow - the backdrops glow! It is pretty cool and when I adjust my overhead lights on a dimmer, I can replicate an eerie twilight or moonlit night. Check it out:
!(http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc450/YorkCentralRailway/Derry Maine in HO Scale - Part 1 - The Beginning/IMG_4667.jpg)
WOW. I think that is cool. It makes me wonder is I could do a similar effect. For an open house or my peersonal enjoyment, that is nice.
Neat! Wonder if other brands would do the same?
Have fun,
Richard
Probably - it’s the paper that glows and the paper I use in my printer (From Staples/Office Depot) glows too. It must be some chemical in the paper - bleach or something?
Pretty neat discovery! I don’t think the glow comes from any particular chemical in the backdrop paper but rather simply because the the pre-printed paper is white. Do you remember wearing a white shirt to your local disco?! My question for the electronics experts is: can you dim the blacklight (UV) to soften the glow? At its normal level I think it would likely be too bright for moonlight.
Aralai - let us know how realistic you think the light levels are with a regular UV light. This is way COOL!!!
Dave
I took the picture with only the blacklight on and no overhead lights. The blacklight I have is fluorescent so I can’t dim it. I’m not sure if dimming would have the required effect - I think it’s more a wavelength issue than intensity of light.
What I did do is turn up my overheads a bit with my dimmer and with the overheads low and the blacklight on it softens the glow so it appears like a moonlit night. I’ll try to take a picture - not sure how well it will turn out.
Hi Aralai:
I will take your word as far as using the normal lighting to reduce the brightness of the UV. True nightime running (i.e. in a totally darkened room) will not show up much except the limited range of the loco headlights and whatever scenery lighting is used. The moonlight effect I think would be much more effective even if it is a little brighter than in reality. So what if we are modeling full moons. Now I can howl at the incredible nighttime views of my layout!!![;)]
Again - Thanks for your discovery!
Dave
Back in an early-mid 1970’s issue of MR, there was an article about using black light for night effects. The author put pieces of black light paper behind the windows of his buildings and when the black light was turned on it looked like the building were lighted.
David
That’s pretty cool. Does a black light make for a realistic night time illumination? I’m planning on using several 4’ flourescent lights for general illumination & could convert them so each fixture would have 1 regular lamp & 1 black light on seperate switches. Not sure if it would be worth the effort or not.
The main issue I see with blacklight is that other things you don’t want to glow might. That might wreck the realism. It could be dealt with and also could be used to advantage - ie: a little UV paint on car headlights etc. Hmmm - I’m getting some interesting ideas…
I worked at a professional model shop in NY many years ago and we used UV Black Light on many exhibits. The most notable was the model of New York City we built for the World’s Fair in 1964-65. The model was 100’ x 180’ and built to 1"=100’. We silk screened window patterns on painted aluminum foil sheets with adhesive backing. We cut the sheets to fit the small buildings and mounted them to all sides. When the model was finished we had the UV lights on all the time and used many bright theatrical lights to create daylight conditions. Dimmers would regulate the day to night transition. During the night scene the thousands of ‘windows’ glowed with such a realistic illlumination that you could swear you were looking at NYC from a low flying plane and all the 108 bridges were painted white so they glowed with that ‘blue-white’ color you see when most UV lights shine on white clothing. Special UV paints are/were very expensive.
UV lights/paints are a lot of fun and you can experiment wih various paints to see what effects you get. Just try the paints under the UV lights before painting anything.
Bob
Thanks for the info Bob. I have been thinking about my night time lighting and now am thinking that your idea for windows might be easier and cooler than actual bulbs or leds. - No wiring required!
I think I’ll do a few tests and take some pictures.
I don’t see any reason or advantage to having blacklighting on my layout. It has an effect on everything else on the layout, so why bother. Rather spend my money on something else for the layout IMHO
Not sure what you mean about it having an effect on everything else on the layout - check the pictures - it doesn’t - by its nature it only has an effect of things that reflect that particular wavelength of light. To me the advantage is the kind of light effect it imparts. The light seems to emanate FROM the backdrop rather than being an obvious light source that lights everything. Done properly, I believe for a night scene it could provide a realistic effect that would require a lot of costly wiring and lights to accomplish.
Yes - I did notice some areas where I had spilled something - I believe a kind of glue - that showed up under blacklight - put those places were few, and I intend to paint over them.
I did not spend ANY money on the blacklight. I had it in the room and it is one small fixture.
I’m not sure I want my backdrop to look like that for “night” views but I do like the idea of being able to have structures lighted without actaually having to wire bulbs in them.
Take a look at this site for Black Light paints and other supplies, you might find stuff to play around with. I especially like the ‘white during day and bright colors under Black Light’ paints. We used these for an exhibit where we painted a scene on a white wall and when the Black Lights were turned on there was a full color mural. Great effects.
Bob