HAS ANYONE SUCCEEDED WITH ALL BLACK SCENERY?

[Anonymous]

My 6 X 12 foot O gauge tubular track layout has about 85 feet of rail. There are two levels with an over/underpass. I'm thinking of painting it with latex flat black .
Maybe the painting would be more successful with smooth variations in black with shades more grey or deep blue? Paint to emulate the variation in 'black' that simply comes from lighting?

Has anyone tried textured or graded scenery and painted it black?
Thanks

[wrmcclellan]

HUIZC - I am not sure if I understand what you are asking. What are you trying to achieve?

[FJ and G]

Check the last couple of Sunday photo threads. There's a guy who painted backdrop black.

You could do the scenery naturally and just not light it (don't paint scenery black). Then, add tiny lights like say a light in a house or a campfire. That would definitely add a good touch to show it is nighttime.

Also, you can use dark colored stuff like black steam loco and boxcar red cars.

If it is too dark, you might experiment with purple bulbs as well

[Anonymous]

To answer, specifically: an all black layout.

The dramatic effect would be limited to the appearance of the track and the dark roadbed as they course between the two levels. A black 'flat latex 'painted layout.

I think the suggestion about using lighting within the layout to create some 'scenic' effect is a good one. I've used LED's in the past.

Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you are trying to simulate a shadow affect from your light source?

[Jumijo]

I can't figure out what you're trying to do. But good luck doing it.

Jim

[wrmcclellan]

You could take a digital photo of your layout and convert it to B&W and then paint everything on your layout in the resultant gray scale. We have a local theater company, Pegasus, that produces all B&W plays. The set, props, and the actors are all in B&W. Clothes, makeup, etc., so it looks like you are watching a B&W movie. Their plays are quite fun to see, always a murder spoof.

BTW. You have a nice layout. Is this an early April Fools joke?

[dwiemer]

Try to use different scenes with a different lighting effect for each scene. This way, when the trains pass by, it glows different colors.
Dennis

[pbjwilson]

I'm using a dark blue background and a forest green carpet to get the look of a night scene.

[Anonymous]

Not sure what you are trying to do, but hope you don't end up with a "seemed like a good idea at the time" moment. Joe

[Anonymous]

I want to see this. When you are done, please post pictures. I wish more people would try unusual or even fantasy layouts.

A few ideas that occured to me in your (and others) discription.

If you are attempting some kind of realism and using this as a shelf layout with a backdrop you could project slides of scenery on to the single colored surface. In this way if you wanted to change the scenery or season you could change the slide. I guess if you wanted to be fancy you could get a video projector and project onto the backdrop for changing scenery.

If you are instead looking for a more non traditional look maybe you could look at the "playmats" Lionel made for thier L.A.S.E.R. toy train sets in the early 1980's. They had a very TRON inspired retro furturistic look to them. I have yet to see a layout that seems fit to run a Lionel Phantom set on. You could be one of the first.

Here is a link that shows a Sci-fi themed layout I did a while back for my Rokenbok Monorail.
http://www.dirtpalace.org/window/2000/andy/index.html

[mickey4479]

Your idea sounds rather gothic. Batman movies have dark scenery, the city buildings are dark, the streets have little light and that gives the viewer a feeling of evil lurking. Film Noir like. I can imagine a film made of trains in a black/gray/white scheme. I recall a film long ago that was quite artistic. The view was from the front of a train, going very fast down the tracks and the signals buildings and designs all in black and white and drawn in what appeared to be pen and ink. Whatever, there is room in this hobby for just about every artistic point of view. How would you illuminate the layout? Black light to show whites and grays? Curious idea. Let us know.

[FJ and G]

about 8 years ago I did an entire layout with black scenery in HO scale. It was a coal mine. Sorry I don't have any photos. I lit the inside of the mine with blue LEDs which gave off just the right amount of glow so you could see.

[cnw1995]

We've spoken about these sort of 'special effects' before - there's all sorts of things you can do with lighting and mirrors, not to mention animation. For a while I had a very bright light behind a little hill that highlighted a huge shadow on the backdrop whenever a train went by - I also painted a 'moon' and stars out of day-glo paint.

[Anonymous]

I don't know saying that this idea falls under the catagory of "special effects". That seems kind of like it is almost offhandedly dismissing his idea.

It seems that all black scenery is going for a different effect than adding a mirror or glow in the dark stars. When it is done it would definitly stand out in a line up. I am interested in hearing or seeing where he is going with this.

[Anonymous]

in the olden days of the woodburners; black scenery along the right of way was prototypical.

[Anonymous]

I appreciate your comments. there is a great deal of creativity in this group! I will try a few things next month - hopefully without destroying too many options for future change and then submit a photograph.
thanks

[Anonymous]

Would show case the engines an passenger cars at night in a darkened room anyway.

Why dont you do that and report the results.