Creating N Scale Backgrounds/Backdrops

Jerry Tarvid Feb 2, 2011

  1. randgust

    randgust TrainBoard Member

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    Any time you put a building against a backdrop you're confronted with some choices. It's all about the sides of the building intersecting the backdrop at an angle.

    Since at least one side, or both, will be 'short', you have to decide whether or not you choose to ignore it, diguise it, or play along with it by extending perspective.

    Ignore it simply ends the wall at the backdrop and starts something new, maybe another building beside it. It looks short because it is. Deal with it.

    Disguise it blocks it with another building, trees, overpass, anything. The reason it looks OK is because you can't see it anyway, your imagination says it would be visible, but you can't see it.

    Play along with it means you're going to try to put the rest of the building on the backdrop in proper perspective image. Hard part of that is that it's only one view that will ever look 'right'. Other views from other areas look 'wrong' depending where you are standing. You may be able to set it up so that you can't really view it from the wrong angle anyway.

    I've done all of these with varying degrees of success. The "Monte Vista" is my most successful 'play along with it' by putting a photo in perspective beside a flat. I've also chosen to ignore it, and that looks bad, a building flat just stuck on the backdrop. Disguise it has limits, but trees work really well. La Posada uses trees AND an overpass to exit me out of an impossible backdrop situation there.

    If you are doing actual perspective on the backdrop, pick the best camera angle to develop it to, and hopefully the most likely spot to watch trains from. And put up images, even test images, on the backdrop and photograph them early and often with the rest of the layout.

    Another thing to mention is mirrors. I'll be putting a thread up shortly on that, as at last count I now have six on my little layout. The most backdrop fun I've ever had is cutting a 'naked' hole in a mirror and framing it simply with a signal bridge, and just running the train out of the visible scene smack into the mirror hole. It kinda freaks out new operators when they see another train coming at them on the same track though, and it makes the backdrop just go on FOREVER. I first saw the technique by Tom Hoover, who framed a scene with half of an interstate highway overpass beside a mirror, and it was flippin' brilliant. The official tunnels of Illinois are highway overpasses, and on my layout I exit scenes four times - two are highway overpasses, one is the "Twilight Zone" signal bridge into the mirror, and one is a tunnel.

    Looking at your layout... I'd seriously at least consider mirroring across the entire layout so that the engine terminal/shop area was reflected back to itself, and possibly hide the entrances under a highway or signal bridge. The 'reverse curves' in the visible layout are always hard to justify.
     
  2. Jerry Tarvid

    Jerry Tarvid TrainBoard Member

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    I was originally considering filling in this area with trees to hide part of the return loop. I like the mirror concept as a means to improve the situation. More details on using mirrors will be greatly appreciated. Unfortunately the return loop was a trade off for continuous running.

    Thank you.

    Jerry
     
  3. randgust

    randgust TrainBoard Member

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    I've had mirrors in my layout since I started it in '83, but they were just plain old mirrors.

    I'd read in old Model Railroaders that John Allen used 'front surface' mirrors, but other than Edmund Optics, never found any, and MAN, were those pricey, even as leftovers.

    But I just found this site, and got two smaller ones to test, and basically..well, you'll see the thread when I get it up, but it's a 'wow'. the smallest one is under the Town House Motel project (see the thread on that) and the ability to put scenery right up to it and completely fool the eye is remarkable.

    I'd cut up some household-grade normal mirrors originally with glass cutters, made an awful mess of broken mirrors, threw probably 80% out as waste, and gave myself a couple decades of bad luck along with some nice cut fingers. This site solved that problem on getting affordable, precut, front-surface mirrors without bandages:

    Front Surface Mirror - In stock and ready to ship now

    See the "town house motel" thread for the little one imbedded in the backdrop, the bigger one will be a new thread.
     
  4. Grey One

    Grey One TrainBoard Supporter

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    N Track module with mirror, (I'm sorry I don't know the builder to give them credit):
    [​IMG]
     
  5. Wings & Strings

    Wings & Strings TrainBoard Member

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    I agree, there's a lot of great stuff here. I do have some points to touch on, though.

    [​IMG]

    1: DISCLAIMER: The backdrop in this photo is not my actual backdrop. I selected it from some Campo photos I had to match the sun angle (the layout was photographed outdoors, too) and I photoshopped it in.

    2: my actual backdrop isn't really a prime example, because my first paint job on it is really just an outline of where all the details will go. I need to make the sky bluer and get some good artist's paint, detail brishes, etc, and paint a better one that blends into my scenery.

    [​IMG]

    This old pic shows my actual backdrop in typical garage lighting. Again, I think it needs work... I don't like how the sky looks purple-gray, and there's no detail on it (except a splotchy line representing a border fence.)

    My goal someday is to eliminate the need to photoshop my pix at all. When I'm there, I can be sure that my work is as good as it can be without "cheating". Until then, I do this: (try to find the layout edge!)

    [​IMG]
     
  6. subwayaz

    subwayaz TrainBoard Member

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    There are some good sample ideas here as usual. My comment is to say that a good backdrop is a mixture of both 3 D flats, and picture/paintings make up a good one.
    I don't have mine up as yet but am getting close. It's one of the last things that I do. But shall incorporate both.
     
  7. ChicagoNW

    ChicagoNW E-Mail Bounces

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    Here's a couple of shots of the Walther's backdrops. They are illustrated rather than photographed. When mixing these with photo buildings these should be the last layer against the wall, as they don't have the crispness of a photograph. I scanned them and reduced them to N scale. At ground level it does make a difference After scanning You can extend their usefulness by flopping the buildings an putting new signage over the reversed lettering. This is a problem whenever you reverse picture, that has signs. With a little bit of work you can cut apart the buildings an make an even longer backdrop. If you have pictures that aren't perfectly in focus, put them in the back layers as that is how you would see them in reality.

    When taking pictures of real places to use a view that matches the perspective of the person looking at your layout. There is a guy on eBay that is selling a reversed shot of the Chicago lakefront. He sells it as how you would see the city from the west. It is way off. There are many places in Chicago that have yards so, there is where some of the best pictures could be found. There is a great view of downtown Chicago from the Cicero Avenue Bridge over
    THE BELT RAILWAY COMPANY OF CHICAGO yard. But you are at least 50 feet in the air. From track level the view is quiet different.

    Here are my pictures. The depth of the diorama is only eight inches deep.
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  8. MOPACJAY

    MOPACJAY TrainBoard Member

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    working in layers

    Here is a section of urban scenery on my home layout,used to conceal a portion of the reverse loop.I started with simple paper cutouts applied directly to the backdrop.Then layered cutouts on foam-core board,low relief buildings and lots of signage to set the location and era.More buildings and retaining walls on the raised portion fill the viewers eyes with multiple layers of scenery.Adding fences,guardrails,etc. helps add to the illusion.The more layers front to back the eyes sees,the deeper the scene appears to the brain.
    [​IMG]
     
  9. subwayaz

    subwayaz TrainBoard Member

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    Nice job MOPACJAY, your backdrop came out quite nice.:thumbs_up:
     

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