# Backdrops



## Dr Bob (Dec 31, 2013)

I am interested to know if you use backdrops or backgrounds on your layout and if so, are they worth it? Also, are they commercial backdrops or ones you make? If commercial backdrops, who is the manufacturer and would you recommend them?

I am building an HO 11' x 10' shelf layout and I am exploring the idea of adding backdrops.

Thanks.

Dr Bob


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## jfynyson (Nov 10, 2014)

I'm interested too so I'll be following other responses here. I've got a shelf/ceiling layout going around my son's room above door/window height and am thinking of a mountain type scene.


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## tr1 (Mar 9, 2013)

*background scenes many to choose from & ways to do*

Back drop warehouse is a place to look. I have not done business with them yet, though. It's on my to-do list. Good luck! I was thinking of using Styrofoam poster board for the background.Glue~1/4" wooden dowels to the back of the Styrofoam poster board. Then
use Eye screws into the wood for the wooden dowels to rest in vertical. When ever I need access to the area. Pull them out to work in the area. Or use fiber board anchored to the
basement wall. Or hung from the ceiling. I have not decided on the method to use yet. I have a very long to do list. Regard's,tr1


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

I bought a blue sky and clouds backdrop but i found that
the Scotch brand double stick pads to would not stay attached to
my painted wall. Scotch advertises them to be strong
enuf to hang pictures to walls. They wouldn't support this
paper. I suspect there may have been a temperature
issue. It is an outer wall. 

The point is, provide some sort of support from your
layout.

Don


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

There's plenty of backdrops available commercially; here's 2 sites:

http://www.backdropjunction.com/

http://customrailroadscenery.com/Default.aspx


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## D&J Railroad (Oct 4, 2013)

I considered Backdrop Warehouse, but to do over 300' of walls would have been too expensive. I've been studying how to paint scenery. I have painted all the walls sky blue before I ever started building the benchwork. I have one wall that will be the test wall for hand painting. The videos I have seen show a procedure of starting with the most distant item and work forward or closer to ya. In this case, a thin wash of dirty white paint down close to the horizon is the first layer. Distant mountains and desert will be next, then closer detail. Instructions say not to include clouds or people in the painting unless ya just want to put them in the picture for a while then take them out and put other people in different places. Nice added feature for backdrops.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

I had about thirty five feet that I wanted to do, my wall in the basement was old style wood paneling... I bought a sky cloud style of backdrop off ebay, four feet tall, forty feet long for around forty bucks [US] ... and used Elmers craft spray adhesive ... after that was on I found some nicer tree / lake / woods images on the net, and settled on three that I liked, and got them printed out at Staples on good quality paper, half 'reversed' .. trimmed the top sky off the prints and glued them at the layout / background joint, reversing every second one as needed ..and then adding a bit of ground cover to hide the joint ... overall it turned out acceptable, except for some wrinkling over time of the backdrop, as it was paper based, not plastic material .. total cost was maybe seventy bucks , or two dollars a running foot, much less than commercial for four foot height


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

A backdrop is just one of the things that turns your project from a "toy train" into a "layout". If you aspire to any degree of realism, backdrops are a must. There is just nothing that ruins the suspension of disbelief like looking across the backdrop and seeing the furnace, workbench or bookshelf, or even bare wall, on the far side.

Commercially produced backdrops are expensive. In my case, prohibitively so. However, with a little creativity, you can produce your own. If you have photo management software (like Photoshop), you can use your own digital photos (you have to do some perspective correction and stitching, so it's not really as easy as just printing a photo.

You can also just use sky blue paint, maybe with a few clouds. Even the suggestion of distant hills / mountains doesn't take much artistic talent.

I use foam core sheets, cut in half (1'x4' panels), attached to the layout with dowels and brackets. I painted them with an airbrush (including hills), then stippled the hills in various shades of green to look like trees. Doesn't look very realistic when you just stare at it, but very convincing when placed in the background behind detailed scenery.


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

I will run backdrops but they will start simply as light blue with some splotchy white for light clouds (my wife can paint) I'm sure in some areas I will want to do more detailed backdrops, but it will all start as simple blue.


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

Those backdrops are awesome!!! There's one of the area around where my daughter lives in Colorado. I'd love to have one, but can't justify the cost. Also, the location of my 4x8 "table" isn't conducive to a real backdrop due to wall design. I might attach something to the layout frame and make a simple sky...if I can learn how to paint clouds.


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## Dano (Aug 26, 2012)

Fire21 said:


> Those backdrops are awesome!!! There's one of the area around where my daughter lives in Colorado. I'd love to have one, but can't justify the cost. Also, the location of my 4x8 "table" isn't conducive to a real backdrop due to wall design. I might attach something to the layout frame and make a simple sky...if I can learn how to paint clouds.


This backdrop on my 4'x8' display was a picture printed and mounted on 3/32" plastic so is free standing. Done by a local print shop and about covers two sides. Cost was $100 but worth it for me.


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## Dr Bob (Dec 31, 2013)

So based on comments so far, no uses those commercial backdrops. They seem to be too expensive. I was hoping someone could indicate if they are worth the money. I have blue walls in my train room and I am thinking of say an 18 inch high backdrop of a town along one wall where I have industrial sidings. It is hard to visualize the various backdrops for my situation. I don't want to spend the money and find it doesn't look right. 
Any thoughts?

Dr Bob


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

Despite all the advice we gather from others, at some point in time each of us has to decide whether to step up and spend the money to see if things will work for our situation, or stay where we are and figure out some other solution. No-one but you can make that decision. 

All of us have tried things that didn't work. Heck, I just finished tearing apart what layout I had because things just weren't coming together right. Luckily all it cost me was some foam glue and elbow grease.


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

I will probably use those in some areas, but only as accents (probably cut out some of the buildings profiles, etc from it to make flats or provide depth to a scene). All would use the blue sky I'll have behind the whole layout.


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

If you have a blue print place or a "Ditto" print place they can take your photos and make back drops (posters) out of them. Shouldn't be too expensive either. Maybe a Kinkos could help. The point is to use the pics you like that you take yourself. Maybe your home town or a place that you like a lot. Easy to work anything into a back drop and it will make your layout look a lot better.


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

*Backdrop question*

:thumbsup: I heartily agree that backdrops are a must. We simply do not have the space to duplicate (all of) what your eye sees when you are outdoors looking at a real train. Since one of the main points of our hobby is to make the scene on our layout look like the real world; we need backdrops (badly) to help the illusion along. 
Backdrops also serve other useful purposes on a model railroad. They can be used to divide a simple 4'X8' layout into two separate scenes. Doing this prevents the viewer from seeing that the train is just going around in all too obvious circles. It also provides a destination for the train. Now we can actually operate like a real railroad. Cars can travel from one town to the other, or off the layout to a staging yard, that represents the rest of the railroad. Said staging can be hidden behind, you guessed it, the backdrop. There is an excellent example of this in the "Red Oak" series of articles currently running in Model Railroader magazine.
Another use for a backdrop (in certain situations) is as a structural element for rigid, no-sag support for a layout that is hoisted up out of the way when not being used. It can also be used to stiffen up modular layouts when they are being moved.
As for me, I paint my own backdrops on a plastic that can easily be bent to form a curved sky.

Traction fan


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## Chet (Aug 15, 2014)

What a difference backdrops make. 

I am not an artist so years ago I picked up some of Walthers Instant Horizon backdrops and put them up for the area of the layout that was built. My layout was on hold for a number of years because we have no hobby shops around at all. When e retailers finally came on line, the layout moved forward. I really got tired of looking at paneling an the new area I was building and continued the backdrop and what a difference it made. 

Check out the videos in my signature and you'll see the Walthers backdrops.


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## Dr Bob (Dec 31, 2013)

Chet:

Thanks for the comments on backdrops. Fantastic layout!! Great detail!! :appl: I am a long ways from that at this point. 

How difficult was it to mesh the images on the 3 ft backdrop sections to cover several feet?? This is one issue that has me looking at the more expensive backdrops as you can get them in longer sections.

Dr Bob


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## Chet (Aug 15, 2014)

The Walthers Instant Horizons are made to be joined together for a continuous scene. It wasn't my choice at the time, perhaps 20 years ago, but at the time, it was all that I could find. a few months back I put up the last of the backdrops to complete the entire backdrop and everything still matched up. The interesting part of the project was blending the hardshell scenery into the backdrop. 

It ended up not being very difficult and I am happy with the results. Check out their website and you can see the many different backdrops the have. There's many to choose from and they will all match up for one continuous scene.


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

Chet, I took the helicopter tour of your layout. Fantastic work you've done...truly a joy to see. I'm sure you've mentioned it before, but what are the dimensions of it?


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## Chet (Aug 15, 2014)

When I started the layout over 20 years ago, the original room was 13 x 17. As construction began, the land baron (my wife) let me tear down a wall and add another room that was 13 x 9.

Here's a photo showing how the backdrop is a lot better than a paneled or blank wall.


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## Mr. SP (Jan 7, 2015)

*Backdrop*

My layout is a shelf sixteen inches deep around all four walls of a room thirteen feet square. 
There is a painted backdrop on all four walls. I hired a artist to paint the backdrop to fit in with the the three dimentional scenery
The walls were painted sky blue before the backdrop was painted


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

Is that all SP power on the shelves under the pretty backdrops? 

Magic


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## Mr. SP (Jan 7, 2015)

*SP*



Magic said:


> Is that all SP power on the shelves under the pretty backdrops?
> 
> Magic


Yes That's most of the Espee power in the collection About 66 units


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

Both layout and backdrops look good! Excellent job!


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