What do you use to mount your backdrops on? I have an area that I want to use a backdrop and that backdrop will be curved 90 degrees.
Most of my backdrop is attached to the block walls of our basement. It's fastened at the top to the sill plate that goes on top of the blocks. I used 3/4" foil covered foam insulation glued to the block, then covered with 1/8" masonite also attached with glue (be sure to use foam safe glue in both cases.)
I did one coved corner by building a frame work of two pieces, top and bottom formers, cut to follow the angle of the corner on the outside and the desired curve on the inside. Vertical slats are attached on the inside of the former curves, providing backing for the 1/8" hardboard as it follows the curve you built into the frame.
The 4x8 backdrop sheets are turned to run horizontally, so it extends 4' down from the ceiling. The wall area below that was underground and covered by the layout in front, so I didn't bother extending it to the floor.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Although I have put off hanging my backdrop, my wife has suggested using flexible cork sheets from Staples to put over the wall and curve around the corner.
Joe Staten Island West
I used masonite with occasional 1x2 vertical supports attached to back of my moveable 5x9' layout. Masonite from Home Depot, maybe 1/8"?? I have a small layout so bent it around back corners, maybe 11" radius IIRC.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
I have given up on curved backdrops after several tries that all crack at the seams after a few years.
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My layout plan will have only two inside curves. One will be a mountain all the way to the valence, the other will be a large industrial building. This way I avoid the curved backdrop problem.
I am interested to hear real world examples of how people fixed this problem.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
SeeYou190I have given up on curved backdrops after several tries that all crack at the seams after a few years.
Life isn't perfect. If you want a sure way to avoid a seam being an issue, go with sheet aluminum. I did that on my Cascade extension and it works well.
Still, my older part of the layout has held up pretty well. Here's a shot along the outside wall looking toards the curved corner I described earlier.
You can see a seam better in this pic, although it's aggravated by a window well that's hidden behind it.
Of course, I tend to look at the totality of a scene and not focus on the imperfection and that deals with things pretty well for me.
I also have a room divider that is built much the same way, except it's two-sided and is in the interior of the basement and not on an outside wall, which helps a lot.
It works well and I've had no issues there or on the vast majority of my backdrop area.
My layout room, in the basement, is an oddly-shaped room with 7 inside corners and 3 outside ones, as shown in this sketch...
(The areas of the sketch in grey now have a second level above them.)
Here's a Word document, outlining my procedure for making coved corners:
I drywalled my layout room by installing the sheets vertically in order to make full use of the tapered edges for finishing, using 1/2" board for the majority of the room, but substituting 3/8" at all corners, both inside and outside. The 3/8" board should extend for at least one full stud spacing on either side of the corner. Tape and finish all joints as you normally would, except those between the two different thicknesses of board.
While the room was "boarded" as-described, the coved corners extend only from the top of the layout benchwork to the bottom of the suspended ceiling. To form the corners, place a tape measure in a rough arc from the edge of the 1/2" board on one side of the corner to the edge of that on the other side - the arc described should be roughly similar to what you wish the finished cove to be, but it‘s obviously better to be too long rather than too short. Working from the back (rough side), cut a sheet of 1/8" Masonite to the required height and the length thus obtained. Lightly sand any fuzz from the cut edges, then place the back face of one vertical edge of the piece against the 3/8" drywall, butting its edge against the adjacent 1/2" piece, then press, top and bottom, on the approximate centre of the Masonite. It will bend with the pressure, forming an ever tighter curve, until the free end "pops" into place on the adjacent wall. While this curved piece will hold itself in position, I drill and countersink for drywall screws along both sides, spaced fairly closely, in order to prevent movement or bulging due to humidity changes within the room. Mud and tape the joint as you would any other. Outside corners are handled in a similar manner, although I've found that a wider area of 3/8" drywall is preferable. This lets you begin the cove as a regular concave one, then allowing it to transition into a convex curve, then back into a concave one as it reaches around the corner and meets the edge of the other 1/2" sheet.
...and here's a sketch showing the set-up, with the red line representing the tape and the green area the drywall mud:
Here's the inside corner between Dunnville and South Cayuga...
...and a view, before the upper level was installed, of the corner between Elfrida and Chippawa Creek...
This view shows the outside corner between Lowbanks and Port Maitland, again, before the upper level was added...
The layout has been in place for over 25 years, with no signs of cracking anywhere. The basement is unheated and not air conditioned, either, but is well-insulated, so there's little variation in temperature even though weather here in southern Ontario offers a wide range of outdoor temperatures.
Wayne
I used 1/4 plywood on my back drop. I then glued poster board to it and painted it sky blue and then added clouds with flat white and flat gray spray paint. It turned out pretty good for my first time of trying it.
I used 1/4 hardboard (masonite) attached to 1" x 4"s at the bottom with "T nuts" for easy removal. No other support was needed and it has not moved, sagged or drooped in ten years.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Say, that's pretty spiffy work you have there, Brent! I think you and I might be spending some time together in the not-too-distant future.
Thanks, Crandell. The big question is, how much if any comes with me. With your brain and my access to your brain, a new layout should be a winner.
If I create the same massive cloud as I did here, by running hardboard through the saw to make splines at the new digs, I may just get thrown voted off the Island.
I hope it all plays out the way we have discussed. I am really looking forward to the change.