The prevailing school of thought (in the hobby press anyway) has been to choose a color that blends in with the predominant scenery color, hence green in the East and tan in the West. I hadn't given it much thought beyond this, but am now wondering about flat black. Almost anything, however, beats the cheap paneling that was popular in the 70's.
Tom, I'll agree with you to a degree. I think anything but black would be better than the cheap Weldwood paneling from days past.bBut beware, I ahve seen on the home makeover/flipping shows on cable that interior wood panelling is being used again.
Fascia color depends on the environment they are next to. Eastern forested landscape seems to match with some shade of darker green, possibly a grayish green. Western desert scapes seem to work best with some shade of muted or grayish tans.
Thank you for stating what I thought but didn't include. All the greenish facias I've seen were on forested layouts. And all the tan ones are on more SW locations, like my cajon layout. Oddly, David Haines Raton layout had a darker tan fascia, and David was a high end architect, so the choice was not uneducated.
I have no problem with paneling per se. In fact, the walls of the main cabin my wife and I will be moving to are covered in tongue-and-groove Michigan white pine, which, in almost 65 years, I have never become tired of. The walls of my future train room (former guest house) are covered with plywood paneling that my dad made with his router and followed with only a coat of flat sealer years before such a product was available commercially. It is understated and very natural, unlike the genuine imitation wood grain that was once very popular. A paneled fascia could be very attractive if done well with the right material, but would probably defeat the purpose of the fascia which should be to focus the viewer's attention on the layout. Hmmm...Now you've got me wondering about replicating the wall treatment on the fascia. Might make the layout blend in with the walls, or would the vertical grooves create too much distraction? Oh well, got a ways to go before I think too hard about that detail.
Doing the fascia in the same wood as the wall would look really nice. IMHO I would give the blending effect
