Seeking advice on backdrops and transitions

Hey there. Perhaps this is late coming but I have a fellow pilot friend who operates a company specializing in background. He's an excellent photographer and has ways to customize blending to match your layout. Try reaching him at 

http://www.backdropjunction.com/

His Facebook name is under David Owen

Hi and thanks for the reply.  I was wondering if I would get any replies after 70 views and no posts. You focused on the main concern I have at this point: how to manage transitions between different scenes.  I went to the website you cited and it looks very promising for custom transitions.  I'll contact Dave and see if we can resolve this.

Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving!

Michael

Dave is a good guy to customize backdrops to your needs.  He is a real good guy to listen to your ideas and come up with samples for you to choose from.  Here are some ideas for you to consider...

This is one that he customized for me.  The train yard adds depth to the scene.

Can't say this is finished, but, you get the idea.  I used an LED strip to light the scene underneath.

Two more ideas:  The top is just photo paper backed by a blue poster board.  Many of these buildings are available online.  The bottom is a very old cutout of a town scene that still needs a lot of work.

This is my overhead layout.  Dave customized 70 feet of backdrop to be 7 1/2 inches high.  You can see city scenes on the left and hills and woods on the right.  At the bar, or the card table, the poker group loves watching the trains go around.

Miller Engineering signs can add a lot.  On the overhead, they are simply mounted to a panel above the bar, and two more along the track that are not shown.  On the table layout, they go great with buildings.

Sorry for the old, lousy pic, but, you get the idea.

An idea for corners.  Hardly prototypical, but it's better for me to keep the functionality of the rooms, so I have to adapt the layout accordingly.  People tend to focus on the 8 trains running at the same time, on four levels, rather than how unrealistic it is.  In this room, they can turn around, without taking a step, and get a cold beer out of the fridge.  You can see the background behind the LCP controllers.  It is HO, and gives a nice distance to the scene.

Hope this helps you...

Jerry

Jerry,

Thanks for info and photos.  Great shots. I'll definitely give Dave a call and discuss transitions.  In my situation, I already have blue sky and clouds, so photos would be cut to blend with skies.  That seems to be doable.  Thanks again,

Michael

Well, I just reached a milestone: the backdrops are up!  Spent several weeks planning and getting great information from several resources, such as print and on line, including this forum, then practicing, and learning all new skills.  I want to give a big shout out to Bill Brown from LARC Products and Joey Ricard from Trackside Scenery for their expert services in customizing and creating specific backdrops for my unique layout: transitions to different seasons, insertion of specific elements (Mt Hood, stream, road, etc.), and colors.  Made lots of minor and few major errors (forgot to account for 3 different levels), but all is good.  The panoramic shot shows the fall scene on left with eventual waterfall, moving to winter scene, then Mt Hood, 3rd level for 175 Rocket Launcher, then timber area on far right. 

Very pleased with results, especially given I have never done any of this before.  Need to accommodate the multiple levels, then on to benchwork!

Happy New Year!!

Michael

Michael Pags posted:

Well, I just reached a milestone: the backdrops are up!  Spent several weeks planning and getting great information from several resources, such as print and on line, including this forum, then practicing, and learning all new skills.  I want to give a big shout out to Bill Brown from LARC Products and Joey Ricard from Trackside Scenery for their expert services in customizing and creating specific backdrops for my unique layout: transitions to different seasons, insertion of specific elements (Mt Hood, stream, road, etc.), and colors.  Made lots of minor and few major errors (forgot to account for 3 different levels), but all is good.  The panoramic shot shows the fall scene on left with eventual waterfall, moving to winter scene, then Mt Hood, 3rd level for 175 Rocket Launcher, then timber area on far right. 

Very pleased with results, especially given I have never done any of this before.  Need to accommodate the multiple levels, then on to benchwork!

Happy New Year!!

Michael

WOW!!! It looks fantastic. 

It sure does.

Looks wonderful!! Was it hard to put up?

Mike, not really hard to mount. I had my wife review the installation video on the LARC Products website with me so that we knew what to expect.  I had reviewed it and others like it to get as much background before the big event. 

One thing we noticed was that even though I used a level, the large panels (there were 5 large ones and two small ones) sometimes seemed to shift upwards or downwards a bit as we moved along.  If we noticed some shift, we did the best we could to adjust. We did make sure the butt edges between panels were aligned properly and that was more important.  I would also add that I mounted these temporarily several times and made adjustments, for instance in some of the sky/cloud background, where the opening for the light switch and main water valve for the house would land, as well as the transition edges between two of the panels (fall to winter scene).

One other tip.  I used products from two sources: one was photographic paper and the other was vinyl, both with adhesive backing. The blue painter's tape occasionally tore the edge on the paper product. We had to be very careful in pulling the tape away.  This was one time I would have preferred inexpensive tape...like the stuff you get at Harbor Freight tools. 

Hope this helps.

Michael

Thanks for the information Michael, until you pointed it our I didn't even see the light switch and the water shutoff . Great work that you and your wife have done. I will keep watching to see how things go!

Looks great.  I am looking at options right now too.  Lots of choices to make.