# What type of Material should be used for backdrop



## nemo (Aug 20, 2011)

Looking to add a backdrop to me layout. What type of material should I use? I read in some article about usingfoam-core board.


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

I used 1/8" thick hardboard


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## dablaze (Apr 17, 2012)

Being a sign guy for years, I figure I can pipe in here. (And having done a couple of backdrops.)

Fomecor is a lightweight product, easy to handle. Its hard to cut nicely, the center foam pulls out if you use anything but the sharpest newest Olfa type blade. Its also fairly fragile, don't expect to be able to curve it.

Hardboard is nice, you can get the white pre painted one at sign supply houses. Order ahead, its not a super popular product anymore. Nice in that you can finish it by putting wood filler over any screws you use. You can run it around a gentle curve.

Guys with flat bed printers print onto white fluted cardboard, this would be an easy choice, but would have.seams

You could even get something printed onto a 14 to 18 oz scrimless banner and as long as you were adhering it to a subframe, you would have a very lightweight continuous backdrop that needed no finishing! Also very mobile if you needed to move.

My favorite is to do a subframe and then a sub wall with (wait for it) DRYWALL, think about it, it can be curved (dramatically if you score the back a bunch and use thinner product) it has a very nice neutral finish, can be easily smoothed out over screws and is the ultimate for accepting paint. Only drawback is its a bit heavier and maybe thicker.

Also, digital printers have come a long way, see if you can somehow find a sign guy that will have an interest in what you are doing, if they know Adobe Illustrator, they can stitch together photos and then print off a wide format (I sell printers up to 10 feet wide, but the common wide format ones for paper are 36 to 54") backdrop. keep it neutral and not to detailed and it usually ends up looking great!

There seems to be an article in Model railroader every few months on this and a month or two ago there was one on doing the digital print, would not be a bad thing to have this and photos of your favorite local ready when you show up at a printer.

Just some ideas,
Craig


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## billshoff (Nov 4, 2011)

*vinyl banner*

I found a panoramic view of mountains and had it printed on a 2'x8' vinyl banner for $17.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

How about the full sized graphic?

FWIW, you can go to Google Images and just enter *Panoramic View* as your search and come up with all kinds of possibilities.


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## beachbum (May 1, 2010)

Some folks swear by aluminum roofing flashing - comes in various widths and colors (which can be painted) and is quite flexible. I've not tried that myself (yet).

I have used 1/2-inch blue extruded foam insulation board - it's very light weight, I'm lazy and I don't have to paint it if I don't want to. Of course, it's not going to bend much without snapping, so it won't work for coved corners and such.


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