Query on backscenes (00 scale)

[jhb171achill]

Looking on the websites of model railway suppliers, the same dozen or so variations of backscenes pop up on all of them.

I'm looking for something vaguely west-Corkish, or Kerry-like. Maybe I'm being too pernickety, but none of those advertised seem to be ideal - though, in fairness, most would DO.

I would be interested in getting something more local done, perhaps with real views of real mountains in the background, down there in the south-west. I wonder has anyone ever had any thoughts about how best to go about converting local views into credible backscene papers?

[Galteemore]

Paint your own, JHB. It’s really not as difficult as it sounds. Barry Norman’s book on scenery tells you how. It’s based on ever thinner washes of green. Here’s a crude one I made this week. The idea of a backscene, I think, is to provide just enough depth to fool the eye into focusing on what’s in the foreground. Look at a lot of coloured photos of Irish railways and what you see in the background is a vague sweep of green and brown. Note that you will have to specifically focus away from the railway content to do that! As long as there’s a suggestion of. appropriate background, your brain will paint in the rest. It’s a basic camouflage technique - just providing enough visual clues for you to see what you are ‘meant’ to see.
 

Photo backscenes are fine but sometimes too sharp and actually distract the eye towards them…well that’s my rationale anyway! The lowest layers of this one will have 3D scenery in front, but will hopefully give the idea of that classic Connaught high ground behind. 

Edited July 2, 2021 by Galteemore

[jhb171achill]

I’d love one with endless turf bog going into the distance!

[Galteemore]

Like this ? Just notice how the essence is reducible to varying  horizontal bands of colour….the green-brown at the back is a lighter shade than at the front.

Edited July 2, 2021 by Galteemore

[jhb171achill]

Yes, that’s similar to what I had in mind!

[WRENNEIRE]

We have had photos printed onto adhesive paper, I think SNAP or some such similar printer did it for us

Basically we supplied some pics and they transformed it into a 4mm backscene,  very realistic

[David Holman]

Photographic backscene are ok, but you are right, JB - the same ones crop up all over the place. As Galteemore says, it is not that difficult to paint your own, while photos can be too sharp and distract from the layout itself.

 Sometimes, all you need is sky, especially if the on layout scenery is rising towards the backscene. Nothing fancy ended here either. Currently, outside my window, it is a very pale grey, pretty much all over and certainly not difficult to reproduce. Indeed, translating Galteemore's photo of the brooding mountains into a layout backscene, only the top half would need to be painted. Three or four outlines and a few shades of blue/grey. 

 Don't make the backscene too dark though, or you'll need some very bespoke lighting and that is a completely different ball game.

[Galteemore]

A further advantage of painting, I have discovered this morning, is that the back scene can be revised if you find that the scenic feature you are installing needs a slightly different level of sky/land interface than you’d thought …..

[NIR]

Backscenes should be impressionist, and even hills and mountains need only cover a few degrees of arc

Edited July 4, 2021 by NIR

[Northroader]

 

Here’s a backscene I’ve just wrapped up for my line, done in acrylic paint. You can start it off like a watercolour, using transparent washes, but overpaint into thick opaque layers, like oil, but the gain with pva is that it is very fast drying. Usually I paint for around an hour, changing the water frequently, then give up trying for a few days. Parts of it have been done as stick on patches, such as the buildings, rather than trying to get the whole thing right at one go. I do hope you guys agree it has an Irish look. The photo by Galteemore is wonderfully dramatic, could you have some sidings or a station in front, or is it too remote without any buildings? (Maybe Maam Cross) One source of inspiration I use is old railway posters.

 

[David Holman]

That's a wow then! Excellent work. Also worth adding that there is nothing wrong with mixing media. As well as acrylics, I also use crayons, felt pens and drawing pens.

[Galteemore]

Wow indeed !! Real look of Glenarm about it….lovely. I also think we need to hear more about this layout - and stock….

Edited July 4, 2021 by Galteemore

[jhb171achill]

53 minutes ago, Northroader said:

 

Here’s a backscene I’ve just wrapped up for my line, done in acrylic paint. You can start it off like a watercolour, using transparent washes, but overpaint into thick opaque layers, like oil, but the gain with pva is that it is very fast drying. Usually I paint for around an hour, changing the water frequently, then give up trying for a few days. Parts of it have been done as stick on patches, such as the buildings, rather than trying to get the whole thing right at one go. I do hope you guys agree it has an Irish look. 

That’s a truly outstanding job, well done!

[Northroader]

I haven’t yet fully sussed out the emojis on this site, I was looking for the one to say thanks for the kind comments on my  backscene, next I should try and get a specific thread rolling here, as invited. There’s one on RMweb, dedicated to general pregroupery, and from last April I started an Irish trip on it: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/107190-“washbourne”/page/60/&tab=comments#comment-4380728

[Irishswissernie]

I usually paint my own backscene but keep it very simple, white matt emulsion base and whilst still wet blue and gray acrylic or poster powder paint brushed in broad wide strokes and then just suggestions of trees , hills etc ,nothing really detailed.

I have in the past used printed sky papers but invariably managed to fleck them with paint which then is difficult to disguise.