Has anyone ever used extreme forced perspective?

[FJ and G]

For example, running a line of telephone poles diminishing in actual size, alongside a diminishing road that disappears into the background?

I'm going to attempt something similar and was just wondering if there are any frontiersmen who've already blazed this trail.

[Anonymous]

hey, at the PSX convention (2004), i saw a layout with the detail like no other. on one scene, he had an ho scale truck (in front), further back on the layout (toward the back drop) he had the same truck but in N scale.

Alexander

[cwclark]

if you are a good artist then this is for you, ..first decide where you want a road to go, then paint the road on the backdrop and paint it to disappear by rounding a corner and into some trees...when i force perspective I'll do the above first...then add some backdrop pictures of buildings, then some flat building fronts against the backdrop pictures, then some half buildings, then a full size building in front of the half buildings...it's also a good idea to make this town or city higher than the train tracks...put in a barrier or wall or even a hill but make sure all this stuff is above the layout to give the best forced prespective view......Chuck

[FJ and G]

Chuck,

Mine is a desert scene and I've seen roads disappear into the horizon before they get to the mountains. Layout is near eye level.

[Anonymous]

For a forced perspective photo contest many years ago in RMC, I used a 1/25th scale truck in the foreground, an O scale boxcar next, then an HO car, and lastly an N scale steam engine in the background. All of this within an 18" wide shelf layout!

I won second place, and honorable mention in the contest!

Bob Boudreau

[Anonymous]

The late Bud Sima [Prospect & Upper Ridge RR] was a master at it. He did some scenery for the layout in the B&O freight house in Ellicott City, Md. The layout was the Old Main Line of B&O. At Ellicott City on the layout, the tracks passed over Main Street just as on the prototype. There was only several inches of room to the back drop. Bud narrowed the street a bit and put a slight curve in it; then he built some false fronts that had windows and doors and walls skewered to force the perspective. Very effective.

[Anonymous]

It's probaly not "extreme" and more "nudged" than "forced" but I try to add depth to the N Scale layout by using progressively smaller trees as they climb up the mountains which form the backdrop of the 2'-8" modules. Trees in the front range from 4" to 8" while trees in the back are 1 1/2 to 3 inches.

It fools my eye anyway.

Wayne

[Jetrock]

The problem with forced perspective is that it only works from a particular angle--if you can view that line of telephone poles from other than fairly close to dead-on with the actual modeled poles on the layout, it looks cockeyed. But effectively used such visual tricks can make an inch look like a mile--or more.