Here are a few photos of my backdrop
Be Wise Beware Be Safe
"Mountain Goat" Greg
SP&S Oregon Trunk
Here are a few background shots from my layout, which is still a work in progress. More are visible at:
http://housatonicnscale.blogspot.com/
Eric
Can I claim the smallest backdrop?
I put in this road photo after an article appeared in MR earlier this year. I'm kind of stuck with the 45-degree roofline, but the end walls of the layout are vertical, so I decided to try this technique. I took the photo in front of my house.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MR Greg, I really like your backdrop and the Goat in the foreground. It works very well.
Mr. B, I think you have at the very least a truly excellent start. It looks very natural to me.
Crandell
Heres my planned backdrop for Slate Creek..The "sky" above and between these buildings-I have 3 different types-well be painted light blue.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Mr. B,
It may be small but it is very well done. A photo of my backdrop would be an off white wall with a few nail holes. I've gotta get to work on this !
Wayne
Modeling HO Freelance Logging Railroad.
I took a shot a painting mine. Was an interesting learning experience. Next time I'll make the colors of the backdrop match the scenery! Also take time to fade the distant areas with an overspray of white. The whole thing is about 15 feet long. Kept me busy for an hour or so many an evening over a couple of months
George V.
Thanks, Mike! That is big praise coming from you!
Terry
Terry in NW Wisconsin
Queenbogey715 is my Youtube channel
My old, now dismantled, East Texas piney woods layout...
Painting BG for layout under construction...
"Two mile long" causeway
Background for cotton compress
Background behind open staging. This is a port area with several railroads have parallel facilities. My open staging is meant to look like "more and more railroad yard" in the background behind the port terminal railroad, and the trunkline yard. Sky is painted. Cargo sheds and sugar terminal are DRAWN in Photoshop, printed out and pasted down. Ships are photos from internet modified to fit scene and pasted. The ore crane in middle of BG is Walthers catalog pix of one of their models. Rail cars seen "end on" are digital photos of models printed with the cargo sheds.
Just to the right of previous photo, the ladder/throat of the open staging. Background is all painted except buildings which are pasted on.
Digital photo of three pieces of PVC cut to make silos for future export elevator model.
Silo array background made by pasting multiples of digital PVC pictures.
PVC silos and cardboard elevator headhouse mockup in front of background
Shrimpboat harbor. The modeled boats are unpainted unbuilt kits. Everything behind the unpainted boats is a combination of painted background, printed photos and printed Photoshop drawings.
My 2 by 3 foot portable Navy Blimp Base railroad, with the world's largest wood building painted in perspective on the BG.
This is a great thread, and I compliment each of the photos here.
I'll bump to page one hoping more will get posted,
Happy Model Railroading.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
An American scene with German Mountains. Guess that's called Modelers license.
Wadda ya mean I'm old ? Just because I remember gasoline at 9 cents a gallon and those big coal burning steamers.
mountaingoatgreg Here are a few photos of my backdrop
I love your work.
Here's what I got:
--Zak Gardner
My Layout Blog: http://mrl369dude.blogspot.com
http://zgardner18.rrpicturearchives.net
VIEW SLIDE SHOW: CLICK ON PHOTO BELOW
Dang, I think I need a better backdrop than my solid blue sky! Of course I already knew that, but this thread is pushing me closer to action. I just can't decide if I should try to paint it or buy one. One will look good and the other one won't cost me any money!
Loads of good ones on here! Zak that background hill looks really good.
Similar to Mr B's, this is just a small one - a trial before I do the full-length version
Modelling the UK in 00, and New England - MEC, B&M, D&H and Guilford - in H0
You're still batting 1000, Mike.
Not the best photo, but is shows our backdrop well:
Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, COClick Here for my model train photo website
Wow Matt that's a stunning result.
Mike
This is meant to be the view across the water from MEC's Calais yard
Great thread!
Mike, your work is fantastic and obviously painting is another hobby of yours.
I'm sorry if I have missed it in an earlier post, but do you paint with your backdrops with oil colours or acrylics?
My backdrop is painted of distant mountains using flat indoor Latex paint. About 45 feet of wall behind the shelf layout was painted this way.
Here's another backdrop I'm using for my layout. Perhaps it is cheating just a bit because it's not actually in place yet, but this 42"-wide poster photo will be used as the backdrop for my carfloat/dock scene on the section of my layout I'm currently working on.
The image depicts the actual Hudson River crossing point used in carfloat operations long ago, showing the view from Fishkill Landing looking south. The modeled scenery in the foreground will come up about 6-inches, covering much of the water-scape near the very bottom of the image. The notch in the mountains at the right of the photo is where the Hudson River cuts through the Hudson Highlands, the namesake of my railroad.
CNJ831
I like that image very much, John. Before I read your comment, I was thinking it was somewhere near Harper's Ferry, and I went on to see that you were at least in the same theme...if nothing else.
I don't have to say it to you, because I'm pretty sure you have long since known this, but for the sake of newcomers or those who aspire to imagery of their layouts, the key to making it all "work" is using a photo that is taken from the correct height and sun-reference position. Very often a photo backdrop that would in other circumstances be highly complementary to the layout in the foreground is actually a serious impediment to credibility and realism. While the layout seems to be shot from a high vantage point, the backdrop photo runs to a much further horizon than it should, suggesting the layout is heavily tilted...which it isn't. Or the camera lens is more pleasingly kept very low to 'ground level', but the backdrop photo shows flat or rolling terrain rising at a weird angle.
I will be very interested to see how you employ this wonderful possibility.
Mikelhh,
I've been following this thread and looking at your background art for a few days now. Each one is a gem in its own right. I especially like your use of color, and the implied details in your paintings. For instance, I see above, a brick building but not individual courses of bricks on its walls. Your skies are marvelously done with just the right hues. I'm very impressed and inspired by your background paintings. Please display more if you can.
Jim
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
Crandell - Indeed, the method for creating a believable photo-background for a layout is a highly interesting topic and likely rather poorly understood by the average hobbyist. Without question, it is worthy of an extensive discussion thread all its own...such as might have been forthcoming had this site been "improved" along the lines I and a few others had proposed a few months back. Instead, it remains largely just a disorganized chat room. Anyway, since there are at least a few here that might benefit, I will briefly point out the facts.
The hobbyist has essentially two choices when creating a backdrop for his layout. When he chooses to have scenes involving sweeping vistas he must decide whether the point-of-view shall be for the benefit of a realistic camera angle, or appropriate for the actual operator/viewer. Both situations cannot normally exist simultaneously, unless perhaps the layout is set exactly at eye level.
In my particular case, when I took the photo that will become the backdrop for my carfloat/dock scene, I chose to have the perspective correct for the operator. My layout has a track level of 42" in this area and my viewing height (floor to eye level) is 65". Thus, when operating my layout from a standing position it is as if I am seeing the scene from a scale elevation of 200'. The Hudson River photo was intentionally shot from a identical elevation of 200 actual feet above the water level. Therefore, when completed and the modeled scene plus the backdrop are viewed together, the two will appears to merge perfectly.
Too many hobbyists fail to appreciate just how critical correctly approaching this problem can be. That is why so many backdrops seem to have an obvious incongruity about them relative to the modeled scene. This the viewer often finds "disturbing" in the appearance, but can't really put his finger on just what's wrong.
Thankyou Mitropa and Jumijo.
I use acrylics for my backscenes because they don't have the gloss of oils and also because unlike oils they don't retain surface brushmarks.
CNJ831 wrote:
"decide whether the point-of-view shall be for the benefit of a realistic camera angle, or appropriate for the actual operator/viewer. Both situations cannot normally exist simultaneously, unless perhaps the layout is set exactly at eye level."
This is why I have a gap between the baseboard and the wall so I can raise and lower the backdrop as required - higher for a high camera, lower for ground level - to accommodate changing eye levels. It's not a perfect solution but it does help.
It's a fiddly job involving propping up the backscene board from underneath the layout, and using velcro tabs to prevent it falling away from the wall.
selector the key to making it all "work" is using a photo that is taken from the correct height and sun-reference position. Very often a photo backdrop that would in other circumstances be highly complementary to the layout in the foreground is actually a serious impediment to credibility and realism.
the key to making it all "work" is using a photo that is taken from the correct height and sun-reference position. Very often a photo backdrop that would in other circumstances be highly complementary to the layout in the foreground is actually a serious impediment to credibility and realism.
agreed 100% With painted backdrops you at least have some control over that. I've seen commercially available panoramic backscenes with back-lit clouds, for example, but how many layouts are similarly backlit?
Shadows on and cast by buildings can bring you unstuck too.