I've been doing mirrors for years and just replace two mirrors with front-surface mirrors recently. I'll put up my projects (success, and sometimes lack of it) and share the ideas I've got, along the way there's got to be some other goodies out there. I was inspired way back when by John Allen's HO layout, then really got the bug the first time I saw Tom Hoover's N layout with a 'naked exit' out of a yard by putting a mirror across the track and simply putting a highway overpass to hide the hole that reflected it to look like a dual-lane interstate highway. I was hooked! If you model anyplace but the rockies, making graceful scene exits shouldn't be tunnels. Mirrors can often do the trick. Here's my track plan back from '83 that has the mirrors indicated on it....from the start. http://gustafson.home.westpa.net/Trackplan_top_level2.jpg There are now SIX mirrors on the layout... see the -/-/-/-/- markings on the backdrop. -- Winslow overpass exit (just redid it with front surface) -- Winona / tank farm scene -- Forest above/behind Nelson Tunnel -- overpass out of Winslow / highway -- light reflector inside Winslow/Winona backdrop -- underneath the Town House motel (new, front surface) OK, lets start with the easy ones... The easiest, and perhaps least complicated, is the forest above Nelson tunnel. You can see the 45-degree angle in the backdrop to the track, so all it reflects is trees, trees, and more trees, yet the angle makes it so you'll never see yourself. It's really invisible, and for a conventional mirror, required no extraordinary measures to hide the lines. In the far back corner, there is simply a tall tree to hide the glass line. If you really study the forest, you can see both the reflected trees on the LH side, and the top edge of the backdrop, but its pretty hidden.
OK, next one up was great fun, but I'm not done with it. This is a pure 'naked exit' and if you study it it is pretty obvious. The half signal bridge hides the hole in the mirror. The problem with this one, is as a conventional mirror, that glass line is really, really obvious. This has worked well, but it is due to be replaced with a front-reflective one now. The tank farm is really effective, but that glass line is pretty bad. I can crop it out in photos but firsthand...well.... that shows the difficulty of intersecting the backdrop with a mirror. And that is where the front-surface mirrors work so very, very well. The newest front-surface mirror is just a little one under the Town House motel to 'finish the scene'. This features two vehicles cut in half and put directly against the mirror, and after I saw this... Now THAT was fun....which got me started on demolishing some older work...
Existing the scene from Winslow has always been problematic. I redid the highway overpass with a Rix bridge a couple years ago, but the mirror looked so poorly done I've always cropped it out of photos posted here. If you look back on the track plan, it looked like a good idea, but in person the intersection line with the backdrop using a conventional mirror was simply impossible to hide. Here's the scene from the air... several years ago, and you can see the original mirror at the bottom... I tried hiding it with paint (as you can see) and that wasn't very effective.... so this is the one that gets ripped out and redone.
I enthusiastically tore out the old mirror only to discover a fatal flaw in working with these. If you edge the mirror into the backdrop, it is just as bad as any other mirror. But if you edge the backdrop into the mirror, it works great. So, if you look here, you'll notice that I had to cut the backdrop, put in a second layer of masonite BEHIND the first, and make a 'pocket' to fit the front-reflective mirror in.... That's the first important tip, and if you're trying this at home, you need to know it.
Then put the mirror back in.... and discovered that close still isn't close enough. You can see at the end of the guardrail, though that if you get it close enough it works. So I put a layer of .010 styrene cut REALLY straight, and edged it into the front surface mirror, glued it to the backdrop, and then filled it in with drywall compound and repainted the backdrop with the horizon line method. Then I forced the mirror back in the pocket, touched up the scenery, put the telephone pole back in.... Now I'll admit here that I had to really tinker with the lighting so that it didn't reflect back on the backdrop. But I left the mirror line on there, I didn't photoshop it out. That is the actual mirror line now, no kidding. These front-surface mirrors can do this!
my first mirror I used my first front-silvered mirror this year, and I'm amazed at the results. In this scene, it gives the illusion of the track extending beyond the buildings spanning the track. With one building removed, you can see the top edge of the mirror here.
Another thing I've learned - the hard way - is that if there's any way to do it, you want to be able to get the mirror out for cleaning. The last two I did I made custom 'sockets' for them to slide into, even that mirror at the road end of the highway overpass slides right out. I think the front-surface mirrors are a LOT harder to clean than glass, which is why they have a limited market. I polished mine up with lens paper before I put them in. You can't use Windex, or paper towels, or anything like that for sure. Russ' pictures show imbedded mirrors for getting the highways 'into' the backdrop. I've tried that too, just not sure that it worked as well!
The front surface mirror is also good for photography - there's no way I could get a camera in position to shoot this scene. I'm experimenting and having a ball. The reflection of the headlight is not the mirror - I used Helicon Focus for this shot as well. Useful tool. And you DID say "Show us your mirrors."
