Back drops

I purchased mine from Back Drop Warehouse.  They have allot but there website is nothing short of terrible.

Jeff....

Back Drop Warehouse is one choice as well as others...like Scenic Express, one of our advertisers.

If you can't find what you need from a supplier, you may want to consider photographing something you like and then taking it to a local print shop if you have one nearby.  I have one near my house that can print 4 foot wide and as long as you like banners at prices that are very competitive.

Alan

Jeff, other than a commercial backdrop that may or not be what you are looking for you can easily create your own with a photo editor and then send off to print at one of the many online photo labs for a reasonable price. I am a professional photographer, but you do not have to be to create something from your own pics of the area you are modeling. I put this together a while back for a few of the guys on another forum and it explains a bit further. if you are interested and need additional info, let me know via email of message.

I know the forum resizes photos, but feel free to download my image for a closer look at http://jricard.com/share/scratch/BDproject.jpg < just right click and save.

Ha Ha, I know I keep editing this post, but to give you an idea, that print only cost 55 bucks shipped to my door. Bigphotohelp.com is the printer I use for this type of thing,

Alan and Joey are right. Printing your own is an increasingly attractive option. Continuous feed printers are getting very common and inexpensive. I am lucky enough to have access to one at work, but there are all kinds of commercial places that offer this kind of printing, both local and on-line. 

Moreover, taking panoramic images has never been easier.  The iPhone camera has an amazing pano feature, as do many digital cameras. Just head out to your favorite scenic overlook and you can have something all your own.  You can also find thousands of public-domain pano images using Google.   Wikipedia is one popular source.

Thanks everyone for the idea's, I never considered taking my own pictures for a back drop!!

Jeff

Jeff, take a look at my Modular Building Drawings at www.westportmodelworks.com as an alternate way to create a back drop. They can be used in front of a scenic backdrop or on a painted wall.

Les Lewis 

SceniKing is advertising a new "O" scale backdrop called Roll Outs. Their older so called "O" back drops were too small; has anyone tried these new ones to see if they are truly 1:48?

Ron

Jeff,

There is always paint.  

Thanks guys, Dave did you paint that backdrop? Looks great!!

Jeff

Mike,

Finally someone other than me is saying this.  I feel like I'm on some drug when on the website.  Kudos to all who have successfully ordered from them because the site is a disaster.

Just out of curiosity, what does it mean for a backdrop to be "O scale"?    I don't think that a 1:48 mountain would quite fit in my basement.  

Jeff,

Stephanie painted that.  She lives in Mercer.  I could get her # for you.  I painted the new section that I do not have photos for.  

Dave

pete,

I'm going to assume you are serious (even with the smiley face) since I cannot tell any more on these forum who is and who is not serious

For the Northeast, SceniKing's mountains are too small so they look too far away.  They would be alright for HO.  But the big issue is the buildings in these back drops are too small for what I want (close to the track).  They are workable, especially if I were to use something like the Modular Building Drawings at www.westportmodelworks.com discussed above in front of the back drop to give some depth.  The problem is I do not have a lot of room between the track and the wall.

As far as a 1:48 mountain, yes I would like that.  Backdrop Warehouse's 12' X 36" mountain scenes all show some sky so they look far away.  I'd like a backdrop that is all mountain/rock/trees and continues up to the train room's ceiling, giving the impression the mountain is right next to the tracks.  Looking at trains in valleys or gorges you don't see the tops on the mountains anyway.

Back to my original question, I'm interested in whether the buildings in SceniKing's new backdrops are larger than the ones in their old backdrops, giving the impression the buildings are closer to the viewer.  If they are, I might give one a try.

Ron

Ron,

I agree with what Pete was hinting at in his post about scale.

The idea of a backdrop is to provide a sense of distance...which means using forced perspective (objects farther away are modeled in reduced scale).

You have to differentiate between building flats or other reduced relief objects close to the tracks vs. the distant hills. Rarely can both be represented in the same way or with the same medium.

In other words, you most often need to superimpose nearby, close to 1:48 scale building flats or printed photos of buildings on top of a backdrop of distant objects in forced perspective.

This photo is a city scene, but the distant buildings on the backdrop could just as easily have been distant hills. The larger foreground buildings are separate photos pasted collage-style on the backdrop.

Creating the foreground flats separately from the distant backdrop also gives you a lot more freedom in how it all comes together, rather than trying to find a printed backdrop with all of these features in one shot.

Jim

Backdrop Warehouse has several mountain scenes. We picked this one that has some close up, and some far away mountains/hills. Lots of different colors in it as well. 

Jim,

I understand what you are saying; my city scene will be similar to what you did using city backdrops Frank53 developed.  I was looking at cutting out the buildings from SceniKing's backdrops and put them in front.  However, I'm now interested in those Modular Building Drawings Les talked about.

The mountain scene I tried to describe would be right next to the track, like a track following a river down a gorge next to the rock face.  For example:

I do not have the room between the track and the wall for much scenery.  I'd like a backdrop with a picture like this and then I would add some scenery material on the bottom to add some depth.  Commercial backdrops are set up for that forced perspective you mentioned; I don't want that for this particular scene.  I have not seen a commercial backdrop like this.  If I want one I will need to go with a custom job. 

Ron

It is true that photographs can add complex details in tight places, but it is tough to pull off convincingly.  Usually it looks good from one viewpoint but not others.  As an alternative, don't overlook using "mountain flats".  They can be pretty effective in limited spaces.

This rock face is only about an inch thick.  It is made from thin strips of ceiling tiles hot-glued together:

This is just foam-core--even thinner:

A lot going on in a very small space...

Flats can also make a good transition between mountain work and a back drop:

Ron,

I understand the shortage of space, but I really think you need something slightly 3-dimensional right next to the track. I have never seen a convincing scene that is all photo right next to the track.

As long as you are on straight track you can do something like the tunnel wing in Pete's last photo in only a couple of inches. Thin Masonite cut in a hill shape and just covered it with ground foam of various colors like the foamcore in Pete's second photo is preferable to all photo.  That would take less than 1/2".

This rock face is about 1-1/4" thick. IMO a little bit of texture is really needed between track and photo backdrop, but maybe that's just me.

To gain more depth, you can also extend rocks out over the track above the level of the train such as in this photo. That makes for some dramatic scenery no matter what part of the country you are modeling. There's always a way.

Jim

I totally agree with Jim. Attached is a photo of a backdrop I created that is only 1/4" thicK. I use a painted wall with the rational that I were standing in the yard and looked at the streets I would see only sky above the building. Also unlike Jim I do not have the artistic skills.

I mount my modular drawings on Black gater board and then attach the gater board to the walls with velcro soI can move them about as the layout changes or to add additional details. Any dimension you can add to the "forward backdrop" will outway the best photograph when visitors are focused on the railroad in my opinion.

Pete: Your layout is really similar to some changes I'm about to make to my 5x10. Namely, I'm going to have ground level line running right in front of an elevated line which in turn runs right up against the wall and through a corner. Also looks like you worked in a lot of operating accessories into what appears to be a compact space. I would love to see some more pics of your layout. 

Oh, no, I've been saying this as well.  The site absolutely sucks and calling them for guidance wasn't much better.  When I was in the early stages of construction and a backdrop could have easily been installed, they were extremely difficult to work with, hard to reach on the phone, and kept pointing me to that atrocious website (when all I had were a few questions). 

That's primarily why I don't have a backdrop on my layout.

Now I'm going to figure out something else by watching this thread.  Will Backdrop Warehouse ever get my money? 

George

Their site (and many other train product sites, IMO) are a fine example of why you should hire a professional designer if you're dependent on a website for your business! Always strikes me as funny when a business such as this talks about how you shouldn't do XXXX yourself and should instead buy their product because they're experts in the area but then they go ahead and build their own website rather than hiring experts who do such things. It's kind of a "do as we say, not as we do" hypocrisy. I see it in lots of other industries.

Yeah, you really don't want your bricklayer performing your triple bypass, do you?

George

Has anyone ever used or dealt with Backdrop Junction, Sceniking, or Affordable Model Railroads for their backdrops. They seem like a good alternative to Backdrop Warehouse. 

I see some nice stuff here, but if you're modeling something that doesn't have hills/mountains/big city, what do you suggest?

I have a stretch of 20 feet or so that is 12" high then the roof angle gets in the mix.  I'm looking for a simple background/backdrop that will make this appear more than what it is...a wall.  Also, the track is only 4" from the vertical wall so there's maybe 2" of depth to play with.

I don't know if just painting it an earth color and painting the sloped ceiling sky blue would help, but it's got to be better than white plaster.

Bob,

Two inches is plenty of room for some bushes, trees, and low hills (either painted or foam covered cut-outs like the ones in Pete's photo).

If nothing else, I'd paint both the vertical and sloped portions sky color to make the change in angle less obvious.

Jim

Jim,

I might try a piece of foamboard, paint it and put it in place to see how it looks.  At least that way if it comes out crappy I won't have to repaint the wall LOL!

First thing I need to do is check for clearances of cars and scenery.  The track is straight along the wall so all I have to do is make sure the cars clear whatever I want to use.