i am looking for a good and cheep way to add a backdrop withour using drywall or painting the wall. what is the best miteral for a light and yet durable miteral for a backdrop? thx, zack
Zack, Had the same problem with backdrop material for my HOn3 layout. Read every article that I could find on backdrop materials. None seemed to fill the bill. One day the answer popped into my head. Fibrglass sheet! Second phone call to fibreglass suppliers and I found a company that sold fibreglass sheet in roll form. It was 1/16" thick and 3', 4' or 6' wide. Cost was about double the price for wallboard. Installation was simply to staple the sheet to the wall studs at top and bottom. The bottom staples were hidden behind the scenery. The top ones were covered by a plastic strip 1" wide by 1/4" thick. It was curved down to 12" radius in the room corners. Eight of us unrolled the sheet by holding it against the existing wall and one dude using the staple gun. The room is 20' x 8', with one doorway. One continous sheet from one side of the door around the room to the other side. Time to install, 20 minutes. Painted fibreglass sheet with acrylic paint with no prepartion other than wiping of the dust that clung to the sheet. It has been up for 18 years now and it has not cracked at any point. Tony Koester said that it was the perfect material! As I live in Australia, there is not much point in giving you the companys name. Worth considering. Gary.
Now you tell me. After many hours of floating, taping, sanding, refloating, sanding again. All that to get a smooth surface to paint. Arrrgg.
Fiberglass...sounds like an excellent idea. Wish I had known that before I spent all the $$$ and time on the Luan backboard. Well, maybe next time!! Thanks
