At our club we used a nice blue colour "Periwinkle Blue" which was chosen by the very scientific process of holding up colour sample cards against the sky on a clear sunny day. This gets the base colour down, and the horizon is airbrushed with white/light blue to lighten it.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
galaxy rogertra: The problem with "Sky Blue" is that there's no such thing. On a summer's day, the kind we tend to model. The sky transitions from a deep blue overhead to almost white at the horizon. Therefore, artistically, painting the "sky" all one colour is incorrect. It should transition from beep blue to almost white. :-) I forget what the name of the color is {it is NOT called "sky blue"}, but it is a nice light blue, the color of the light blue summer sky where the sky is light blue. Remember a MODEL is, by dictionary definition, only a representation of something, NOT an exact duplication, as exact duplications, especially of nature, are very hard to come by. On one of the scenic backdrops I tried, the "sky blue" the room is painted is exactly the color of the sky at the top of the photgraph backdrop. {I just didn't like that particular backdrop so I returned it.}
rogertra: The problem with "Sky Blue" is that there's no such thing. On a summer's day, the kind we tend to model. The sky transitions from a deep blue overhead to almost white at the horizon. Therefore, artistically, painting the "sky" all one colour is incorrect. It should transition from beep blue to almost white. :-)
The problem with "Sky Blue" is that there's no such thing.
On a summer's day, the kind we tend to model. The sky transitions from a deep blue overhead to almost white at the horizon. Therefore, artistically, painting the "sky" all one colour is incorrect. It should transition from beep blue to almost white. :-)
I forget what the name of the color is {it is NOT called "sky blue"}, but it is a nice light blue, the color of the light blue summer sky where the sky is light blue.
Remember a MODEL is, by dictionary definition, only a representation of something, NOT an exact duplication, as exact duplications, especially of nature, are very hard to come by.
On one of the scenic backdrops I tried, the "sky blue" the room is painted is exactly the color of the sky at the top of the photgraph backdrop. {I just didn't like that particular backdrop so I returned it.}
It's quite true that no "one" blue color is actually the "sky" color. Many backdrops in the club were hand painted by an artist member. Even any painted on hills, trees and especialy distant mountains need the sharp contrast knocked down to show the distant "haze" My solution is to air brush a wash of "dirty white/ blue" and actually fog the horizon and painted tree/ forest. By using an airbrush you can control the amount of haze as you decend lower on the horizon. Ground level fog/ haze can be shown in low lying areas as well. Any forground features are then immediatly wiped clean by working a wet brush to allow them to pop out of the haze and show that it is closer than the distant. This is more pronounced for more of the painted forground features generally trees.
As far as having others paint the backdrops away from the layout, this is fine, however, I would recommend that you roughly sketch/ outline the distant landform to comply w/ the track plan/ and scenery layout. This is not nec for very flat topography, but any hilly or mountainous areas should be laid out before allowing others to paint those backdrops away from the layout. If continuation of the backdrop "sheets" is done, make sure that that painting is done to let the panels flow together. Before you send them off to your art school artists, at least prime the panels and maybe even place a base of the close to the upper sky on them. This will be a much better starting point for those "remote" artists to work with.
Good luck and show us your results.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
rogertra The problem with "Sky Blue" is that there's no such thing. On a summer's day, the kind we tend to model. The sky transitions from a deep blue overhead to almost white at the horizon. Therefore, artistically, painting the "sky" all one colour is incorrect. It should transition from beep blue to almost white. :-)
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
willy6I painted my train room "sky blue". My layout touches 3 walls. I'm not an artist, so as far as a backgound is concerned,i'm thinking about buying those photo scenes that can be expensive or i thought about going to the local high school and paying an art student to paint my background.The student would make money and i get a background.
Willy6, excellent idea on using an art student. Something I've never thought of and it is a very interesting solution for someone like me who isn't a very good painter. Thanks !
Wayne
Modeling HO Freelance Logging Railroad.
Cheers
Roger T.
Home of the late Great Eastern Railway see: - http://www.greateasternrailway.com
For more photos of the late GER see: - http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/rogertra/Great_Eastern/
I've got a shelf layout with two ends having a backdrop. So far, all that is painted blue - it’s too dark a blue and should be lighter so need to fix that soon because I work from the back to the front of the shelf. Maybe I'll get some of those photo scenes I've scene in the magazines with trees and sky and a road. Where I model its pretty flat so I don't need much more that very low hills.
Dusty.
Welcome to the forums.
My plan is to paint the room my chosen sky color. I do plan to have a backdrop attached to the layout, but using the same sky color, its height will be disguised. Also, when the room is no longer a train room, it will have a reasonable color, with no other markings on it.
Galaxy "lucked out" in his situation, others have learned from folks like him. That is the way many good suggestions come to light. "I did such and such and it worked" (or didn't work).
Good luck,
Richard
It just so happens that I {we} picked a "sky blue" color for the walls BEFORE I got back into the hobby and built a layout in that particular room.
It worked out perfect.
I would do that way again if I had to do it over again.
Personal opinion: If you're attaching the layout to the wall or otherwise damaging the wall in a way that it will need to be repainted if you want to have it in a 'normal' room, then go ahead and paint on the wall, unless it's textured. If you haven't mangled the wall, make a backdrop out of hardboard and paint on it!
Go here for my rail shots! http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?userid=9296
Building the CPR Kootenay division in N scale, blog here: http://kootenaymodelrailway.wordpress.com/
Welcome to the Forums.
I painted my walls a sky blue, but my layout is an around-the-wall type layout anyway. I guess it might depend on if you are going to use the room for other activities besides model railroading. If you will be taking pictures of your layout and don't want to have a normal wall color as the backdrop, you could always paint some gatorboard or hardboard and use it as a temporary backdrop.
Scott
I am just beginning an n-scale 4x8 island layout. I have only one wall of the room which will touch the layout and intend to put up background mountain views on the adjacent wall and the free-standing 8' portion. Basic question: Do I paint the room walls for sky in the background view or leave well enough alone. Thanks, Larry