It's a line from one of my favorite Jefferson Starship/Paul Kantner songs, but it's also a great opening line to suggest a visit to the train room. But you say it's in the basement and there's no way to look out and see the stars? Nah, the stars are in the train room.
This is actually the latest wrinkle in my Night Scene project. It's been covered in a thread here: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/213765.aspx?page=1
This was a neat and easy enough effect I thought I'd make it a stand-alone thread. No hours of wiring LEDs and installing them in all kinds of places. All you need to install to make this work is some sort of UV lighting. No, not the "summer of love" blacklights, but something more modern, blue LED rope lighting. It's cheap and easy to hang, requiring virtually no skill to install. Check my Night Scene thread for lots of info and tips. They use hardly any power and run cool at about $15 or less per 12 foot length, which can be connected.
One thing to be aware of is that these blue LEDs are NOT full spectrum UV. You can look up the technical details, but this means that not all paints and markers designed for use with full-spectrum flourescent UV tubes will work with the blue LEDs. Ones that I do know generally work are Sharpie Neon markers. I used the yellow version for most of this project, along with a little of the red. These also come as paint markers, the kind you pump to get the paint to flow. Be cautious with these, as it's all too easy to end up with a bright run, rather than a bright star
Once you have the blue lighting, then what? Well you need a backdrop that you can paint on. Mine is masonite primed and painted with light blue latex paint, along with some painted in clouds. If you use the yellow Sharpie, it all but disappears in the backdrop with the regular room lighting on, a big advantage for it over the other colors. With the yellow, you just make stars right over everything on the backdrop. Test yours before doing it to be sure you get the same effect just to be sure.
So do you just start making random dots on the wall to represent stars? Well, you could, but it wouldn't be so satisfying as doing the stars you see on the prototype, right?
Star apps and programs can be purchased with all kinds of cool features. But there are great free ones online. I used this one: http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Yourhorizon
There are a lot of features, so I will discuss the most useful ones here. You can enter most any date and location and get star maps in several different formats.For example, for the stars behind Silverton, I chose the date when the RR arrived in Silverton -- and the location obviously was Silverton
You can use other programs like Google Earth to determine the coordinantes of the star scene you're doing.
Checking the box to show "Terrain at Horizon" transforms the star view so that it's oriented to easily transferred to your backdrop. Remember if you have mountains the lowest stars to the horizon may be cut-off and not visible. And you probably have a ceiling, so the top part of the stars you see depicted may also need to be cut off. A large part of getting it looking right is doing some thinking about getting these cutoff lines right.
Each scene depicts a sector of the sky. You can rotate right or left, just as if you were outside and turned a little to see what is to the side.
Depending on how much "sky" you have available, fit in proportionately what you can and develop some limits so you won't have to squash those stars together to make 'em all fit as you fill up the sky.
Note the setting for "Show stars greater than magnitude ___" Check the box to enable, then adjust the number until you get the desired "star density" displayed. Too few just looks like overcast skies, but too many will drive you nuts marking them all up. Be aware that magnitude runs from 1 -- the brightest -- down to 10 or lower -- which are the weakest.
There are two ways to transfer the info in the star guides/charts. One requires two people, one to run the app and use a laser pointer to direct the second person to make a mark for the star. With a little experience, this goes quickly. The other way is the one person method, with an iPad or other source and just looking back and forth to the wall to locate the spot.
It's quick and really pretty easy. Suddenly, you're seeing stars!
Venus was made using a red Neon Sharpie, drawn over with the yellow Neon Sharpie. This did contaminate the yellow Sharpie's tip, making it slightly orange, but to me it was a desireable effect. The stars in this pic are the color it made after doing Venus by going over the red. Venus is in the upper left corner here. The interaction of the stars with my aircraft fleet is really cool. There's even a Moon, made from a pale green Post-It that glows just a little, enough to look really good with some "man in the moon" features penciled in on it. Here's another angle on the Moon. One last pic, as it's late and I've probably left something out, but let me know what I didn't make clear and I'll be glad to explain better. It's really cool how the stars really open up the walls, making it seem like you're outside under the stars.
Venus was made using a red Neon Sharpie, drawn over with the yellow Neon Sharpie. This did contaminate the yellow Sharpie's tip, making it slightly orange, but to me it was a desireable effect. The stars in this pic are the color it made after doing Venus by going over the red.
Venus is in the upper left corner here. The interaction of the stars with my aircraft fleet is really cool. There's even a Moon, made from a pale green Post-It that glows just a little, enough to look really good with some "man in the moon" features penciled in on it. Here's another angle on the Moon. One last pic, as it's late and I've probably left something out, but let me know what I didn't make clear and I'll be glad to explain better. It's really cool how the stars really open up the walls, making it seem like you're outside under the stars.
Venus is in the upper left corner here.
The interaction of the stars with my aircraft fleet is really cool. There's even a Moon, made from a pale green Post-It that glows just a little, enough to look really good with some "man in the moon" features penciled in on it. Here's another angle on the Moon. One last pic, as it's late and I've probably left something out, but let me know what I didn't make clear and I'll be glad to explain better. It's really cool how the stars really open up the walls, making it seem like you're outside under the stars.
The interaction of the stars with my aircraft fleet is really cool.
There's even a Moon, made from a pale green Post-It that glows just a little, enough to look really good with some "man in the moon" features penciled in on it. Here's another angle on the Moon. One last pic, as it's late and I've probably left something out, but let me know what I didn't make clear and I'll be glad to explain better. It's really cool how the stars really open up the walls, making it seem like you're outside under the stars.
There's even a Moon, made from a pale green Post-It that glows just a little, enough to look really good with some "man in the moon" features penciled in on it.
Here's another angle on the Moon. One last pic, as it's late and I've probably left something out, but let me know what I didn't make clear and I'll be glad to explain better. It's really cool how the stars really open up the walls, making it seem like you're outside under the stars.
Here's another angle on the Moon.
One last pic, as it's late and I've probably left something out, but let me know what I didn't make clear and I'll be glad to explain better. It's really cool how the stars really open up the walls, making it seem like you're outside under the stars.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Mike
Really nice effect. I'll have to remember that for my next layout.
And I'll have to put that Jefferson Starship CD in my car.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Ulrich and Mr. B,
Thanks for the kind comments. They are appreciated. Glad that the stars are obvious enough in the pics to impress, as it was tricky to get them to show up in the images here, even when they are clearly visible on the screen on my camera. In person, they are amazing.
You must be younger than I. When I was in the Navy, I went to see Jefferson AIRPLANE and the unknown band that opened for them: KC & the Sunshine Band.
I never cared for their music after Grace Slick left. Maybe my layout needs a white rabbit.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Dave,
Maybe just a little younger, but not much.
Grace was very much a part of Starship through most of the 70s IIRC [it was the 70s after all ] until one drunken night onstage in Germany. Mr. B is right in that this song was on what was generally considered the first J. Starship album, although it technically didn't become the Starship until the next one. This song/album was officially a Paul Kantner project.
No white rabbit needed, the stars work great for inspiration for me.
I do refuse to hang any Star Trek or Star War craft in my night sky. That's just a little too unprototypical.
mlehman I do refuse to hang any Star Trek or Star War craft in my night sky. That's just a little too unprototypical.
Does that mean I should remove my grandson's Tardis?
Phoebe VetDoes that mean I should remove my grandson's Tardis?
All I can say about that is remember Rule #1, you make the rules on your layout.