Well last week I felt I was making some real progress on the layout. One morning I was rummaging around a box in the railway room and found some old Gaugemaster backscenes I had long forgotten about. I had originally decided on having a white painted backscene, but I had become increasingly unsatisfied with how this looked. So I placed the Gaugemnaster backscene on the layout with blue tac to see how it looked. It totally transformed the layout and it made me immediately decide to add a decent photographic backscene. The problem is I had already glued down the signal box and the house flush against the original painted backscene. However, I purchased some Delux models Backscene glue and set to work to glue down the blue sky.
The Gaugemaster photographic backscene blue tacked down to see how it would look.
Same shot with just the painted white fibre board. The difference between the two photographs is stark.
Well, the end result was a semi-disaster!! Only semi - the sheets of the Gaugemaster photographic backscene I had must have come from separate batches. Consequently, the colouring is slightly different between them and makes a terrible join behind the station! The original painted wooden backscenee is a painted fibre board and the Delux models glue must have caused it to swell slightly. Where I applied the glue there is swelling and crinkling on the photographic paper. It is not too bad, but it is certainly noticeable.
Join between two of the sheets!
View back down the layout with the signal box removed. The crinkles and join are far to distracting.
So two lessons learnt are 1) a better photographic backscene is needed, and 2) my skills in creating the backsence are limited!! I spent a bit of time thinking about it and came up with a plan. I have ordered some 3mm foamex boards and an ID models self adhesive backscene. The plan is to stick the photographic backscene to the foamex boards and then glue these onto the layout. The only problem is I have to remove some of the detailing work already done, although this is not too onerous, but it means the signal box and terraced houses need to be moved. The signal box came off easily enough. However, I am summoning up the courage for the terraced houses.
A few of the sort of effect I hope to be able to achieve.
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