Unique Situation with Backdrop Installation

Here is a recent thread that discusses many different approaches to hanging backdrops:

https://ogrforum.com/t...19#64499421611175419 

It would be helpful if you could post a few photos of what you're dealing with.

Here you go!

I am back again with the same issue I had before. I am really at a stand still with this. Bench work already up and track already laid. I don't want to start the serious scenery and ground cover until this has been completed.

I know I can't be the only one in the forum who has this issue. HELP HELP HELP!

Hi, I have a similar issue with an attic room 13' x 13' that will be my train room.  The angled walls really become 

ceiling(s) and therefore I treat them like sky and am trying my hand at painting clouds on them.  Any "normal" vertical walls could, of course, be improved with a commercial backdrop or whatever you budget allows.  If pure blue sky walls don't do it for you, you could try to ease the transition at the horizon & make the lower parts lighter & hazier, ie: take some of that leftover blue paint, throw some white in it & roll-it or sponge-it on the horizons.

  I am not thrilled with my clouds so far (took a picture of a cloudy sky and tried to copy it) so I am touching them up this weekend. 

Hope this is helpful.

Rich

What type of background scene are you wanting to install? Mountains? Plains? Desert? City?

I think if you keep the height of the landscape below the angled ceiling it will look fine. The angled ceiling becomes sky.

If you're wanting to have a mountain backdrop, you will need to keep the mountains far in the distance, so the mountains are "low" and most of the picture is sky.  

 I think it could work that way. 

JD

Dave,

I've attached a series of pictures of the backdrop my daughter and I created.  I did the blue sky and clouds and she free handed the terrain.  I will likely add some building flats to the mix.  Good luck!

Bruce

Dave and Rich, 

       I think your best bet is stenciled clouds, though I fear that you have already boxed yourself in to get to the walls. I have built two layouts. One I used a roll of darkening window shade material that I bought at a 50% off sale at JoAnn's. I then hung it over wood-like paneling. I had a very talented Mother-In-Law who painted the waterfall scene in he middle, but I painted the sky and the clouds. I have had to rebuild. In my new location (the old home that I grew up in) I just painted the block walls azure blue in the basement and then stenciled clouds all around. The stencils I bought back then are made by New London Industries. You can do all kinds of clouds with them and then you can add your own wisps. I also would go over some of the white clouds with a bit of gray to give a more realistic appearance to them. If you search for New London Industries, you can find several suppliers. Here is one: http://www.blueridgehobbies.co...stries-Main-1-10.asp.

Here are a coup;e of pictures of the cloud formations that you can create (and be mindful, I do not have an artistic gene in my cells!!!!)

Rick

Ranger Rick posted:

Dave and Rich, 

       I think your best bet is stenciled clouds, though I fear that you have already boxed yourself in to get to the walls. I have built two layouts. One I used a roll of darkening window shade material that I bought at a 50% off sale at JoAnn's. I then hung it over wood-like paneling. I had a very talented Mother-In-Law who painted the waterfall scene in he middle, but I painted the sky and the clouds. I have had to rebuild. In my new location (the old home that I grew up in) I just painted the block walls azure blue in the basement and then stenciled clouds all around. The stencils I bought back then are made by New London Industries. You can do all kinds of clouds with them and then you can add your own wisps. I also would go over some of the white clouds with a bit of gray to give a more realistic appearance to them. If you search for New London Industries, you can find several suppliers. Here is one: http://www.blueridgehobbies.co...stries-Main-1-10.asp.

Here are a coup;e of pictures of the cloud formations that you can create (and be mindful, I do not have an artistic gene in my cells!!!!)

Rick

Gorgeous!

BruceT47 posted:

Dave,

I've attached a series of pictures of the backdrop my daughter and I created.  I did the blue sky and clouds and she free handed the terrain.  I will likely add some building flats to the mix.  Good luck!

Bruce

 

 

Bruce, I Like! Thanks for the visual.

trestleking posted:

Hi, I have a similar issue with an attic room 13' x 13' that will be my train room.  The angled walls really become 

ceiling(s) and therefore I treat them like sky and am trying my hand at painting clouds on them.  Any "normal" vertical walls could, of course, be improved with a commercial backdrop or whatever you budget allows.  If pure blue sky walls don't do it for you, you could try to ease the transition at the horizon & make the lower parts lighter & hazier, ie: take some of that leftover blue paint, throw some white in it & roll-it or sponge-it on the horizons.

  I am not thrilled with my clouds so far (took a picture of a cloudy sky and tried to copy it) so I am touching them up this weekend. 

Hope this is helpful.

Rich

Rich,

I am leaning more towards the approach you mentioned, trying to use a commercial back drop on the areas of the room which have flat walls. This will probably be one the most creative tasks for the layout. Gotta love those ceilings.

JD2035RR posted:

What type of background scene are you wanting to install? Mountains? Plains? Desert? City?

I think if you keep the height of the landscape below the angled ceiling it will look fine. The angled ceiling becomes sky.

If you're wanting to have a mountain backdrop, you will need to keep the mountains far in the distance, so the mountains are "low" and most of the picture is sky.  

 I think it could work that way. 

 

JD

 JD that's an idea. My plan was to put a back drop on the areas of the room where the walls are flat and trim it when it meets the angled section of the ceiling. I would like a mountain scene on the section of the room where the window is (not pictured) and an industrial scene on pic #3. I did plan to put clouds in other areas.

I once made a model in a plexiglass glass box and glued a mural of the sky to the back of the box. The box had sharp corners and the right angle turn of the mural was very obvious. If I ever do it again, I will have a box made with a radiused back to it. I would try to do the same thing at all angled and 90 degree corners on your layout using Sheetrock and wood. I think as long as you get some kind of radius and eliminate sharp corners, everything can blend in better.

alan graziano

think MDF is a good choice its flexible enough to curve and easy to cut and light weight

Hey guys and gals! This is an update on where I am with installing the first backdrop. I have put masonite on the one section of the wall and cut to form. I will do the same on the other side, to the left, that is not pictured. I still don't really know what I am doing but I will take you on the journey and let you know when I get there. I think I'm getting closer though!

Hey Guys and Gals,

Here is what I have been doing this weekend. I actually installed masonite on the left side of the wall (first pic) and on the section on the wall to the right of the layout (pic #2) which will eventually have a steel mill backdrop. I carefully put up my first backdrop marked it then cut it. How nerve racking was that!?  This will give you an idea of what the other backdrops will look like as far as the tapers on the ends. Anywho, I taped it up to see how it looked and I think I may be ready for installing it with either two-sided tape or wallpaper paste. Haven't decided yet. 

I apologize for the fuzziness in the pics, I took them with my phone.

Dave

Bruce, nice work by you and your daughter.

Rick you may not have any artistic genes but you wield a mean cloud stencil, and that waterfall your very artistic mother-in-law painted for you is superb.

Dave you're conquering those angle nicely.

Thanks Coach Joe!

Bruce

Thanks Coach Joe! I wasn't quite sure what the turn out would be. I sometimes get something in my mind and it works there but nowhere else, lol.

David,

the backdrop came out perfect. Nice job.

alan graziano

Alan Graziano posted:

David,

the backdrop came out perfect. Nice job.

alan graziano

Well say no more. Coming from you I don't need to hear it from anyone else. Thanks Alan!

OK, here goes the fun part. I am looking for suggestions on how to attach the backdrops. Before giving suggestions here is what I'd like to do. I want to use smoothed out spackling on the top edges so the edge of the backdrop will be hidden. This will then be painted. For this reason I will not cut the white trim on the top of the backdrop.  I also want to blend the sky in the backdrop with the color of the walls. I will add more clouds on the wall above the backdrops.

With that being said what would be a good way, I won't say best way,  to attach the backdrop to the masonite?

Suggestions?

Dave,

The backdrops look great taped in place. I'm guessing the masonite is 1/8 inch thick. I's suggest using whichever method of attachment you are most comfortable with (velcro, 2 sided tape, or wallpaper paste). If you have no experience with wallpaper paste you will find it messy and challenging in terms of butting seams. If you've hung wallpaper, it might be the best method. If you think there's any chance you might move and want to reuse the backdrops, then I'd go with the velcro. I have no experience with either velcro or 2 sided tape, but both methods have worked for many others.

Regarding the spackle, I'd try to avoid it. In an attic area there will be temperature variations and the masonite and spackle might expand differently leaving you with cracks. You might want to consider painting the sky on the backdrops the same color as the sky paint on the wall above the backdrop. That would help the seam to blend. I did this with my backdrops and it was time consuming, but worth the effort.

Alan's point about curving the backdrop in front of corners is right on the money. If you are doing a city backdrop of buildings, you can get away with the 90 degree corner. But, having mountains go into a 90 degree corner and look realistic is a real challenge.

You are doing a great job so far!

Trainfun,

Thank you for your advice. Gives me some things to think about. I guess without actually seeing it, my only concern is that as snug as I may get the top rim of backdrop to the masonite, I would be concerned there might be some sort of exposed edge between the top edge of the masonite/backdrop and the wall above it.

I actually did think about painting the backdrop sky the same color as the room but quickly changed my mind because of insecurities about destroying the backdrop.

Back to the drawing board.

luvindemtrains posted:

Hey Guys and Gals,

Here is what I have been doing this weekend. I actually installed masonite on the left side of the wall (first pic) and on the section on the wall to the right of the layout (pic #2) which will eventually have a steel mill backdrop. I carefully put up my first backdrop marked it then cut it. How nerve racking was that!?  This will give you an idea of what the other backdrops will look like as far as the tapers on the ends. Anywho, I taped it up to see how it looked and I think I may be ready for installing it with either two-sided tape or wallpaper paste. Haven't decided yet. 

 

I apologize for the fuzziness in the pics, I took them with my phone.

Dave

Dave,

I just saw this topic today.  I think the photos of what you accomplished by July 23 look great!  You are picking up fast on the great examples the others showed here!  

Thanks Mark!

Thanks to everyone that gave me suggestions for my backdrops. 

OK, I went in and finally got 4 of the 5 backdrops installed. At this point I have yet another backdrop to install and then I have to blend them all in with paint. I used two sided carpet tape and the steel mill came with adhesive backing. 

I almost ruined the steel mill backdrop because the paint did not quite match so I am in the process of correcting this potentially expensive "boo boo" and will update everyone once that project is complete. Thankfully there's more "sky" left to get it right. 

I have heard it many many times, but backdrops make a world of difference to a layout and I can't wait to get the last one installed so I can continue with the landscape. 

The backdrops look great.

Alan Graziano

Alan Graziano posted:

The backdrops look great.

 

Alan Graziano

Thanks Alan! That bridge doesn't look half bad in front of the steel mill either. 

Dave   

 I don't know if my problem is applicable to yours but here was my solution which was never completed as regards decoration by artist or wall paper. But still can be.

I had 13" of kneewall space from layout to rafter wall. I had railpower on and trains running and some structures in place before I realized that i needed to consider the backdrop if at all.  I ripped 1/8" x 8' Masonite and velcroed it to the kneewall space with the thought of later taking it off for an Artist's treatment or paste up scenes. I did not permanently fasten or light wire any structures with that thought in mind. Unfortunately 7 years ago health issues intervened and I never followed up. Anyway the poor photos below show what I did with the velcro  method.

Below  corner section and first 8 ' section already installed, second section on quilt, prepared for installation including where kneewall door casing (taped over) was removed. 

  Opposite side using some white Velcro

Below you can see the horizontal line of the panels in this corner photo. Structures including coal pile,stack,  track and structures are still removable.

Dewey Trogdon posted:

Dave   

 I don't know if my problem is applicable to yours but here was my solution which was never completed as regards decoration by artist or wall paper. But still can be.

I had 13" of kneewall space from layout to rafter wall. I had railpower on and trains running and some structures in place before I realized that i needed to consider the backdrop if at all.  I ripped 1/8" x 8' Masonite and velcroed it to the kneewall space with the thought of later taking it off for an Artist's treatment or paste up scenes. I did not permanently fasten or light wire any structures with that thought in mind. Unfortunately 7 years ago health issues intervened and I never followed up. Anyway the poor photos below show what I did with the velcro  method.

Below  corner section and first 8 ' section already installed, second section on quilt, prepared for installation including where kneewall door casing (taped over) was removed. 

  Opposite side using some white Velcro

Below you can see the horizontal line of the panels in this corner photo. Structures including coal pile,stack,  track and structures are still removable.

 

 

 

Thanks Dewey! I believe I saw your post before and it looks like a great idea, especially since I haven't started those smaller areas of the wall. 

Dave:

I agree with Dewey. I am not sure if landscaped backdrop would work on a sloped wall or on flat wall sections are so short. Better to fill them with buildings or flats. The sloped wall sections would most likely be better suited for sky and clouds as mentioned earlier. With the sloped walls you may even end up with the illusion of clouds hanging over your layout.

A good source to talk to would be Joey ?Ricard? of Trackside Scenery

I tried to find some samples of sloped wall backdrops to pros and cons of sloped landscape etc. could not find that much

Hey Joe,

I really hadn't thought of backdrops in the flat wall sections. I mean well I did, but it was short lived. I probably will go with some type of structures as the third pic, you posted, shows. 

As far as the sloped ceilings I believe I will have clouds. 

Thanks for taking a moment to chime in on this.

Dave

Dave:

You're welcome. Keep us posted on progress.

Joe

Model Structures posted:

Dave:

You're welcome. Keep us posted on progress.

Joe

Yes sir, will do!