So Im still trying to figure out my new trackplan, but im having an issue with the track being within a few inches from the backdrop, leaving no room to blend the egde of table and backdrop. I know a good trick is to attach wall sections directly to the backdrop but I dont want a building all the way around my layout. My question is have any of you ran into this dillema? Im sure somebody has and Id like to know what other ways I can go about hiding the sharp angle between backdrop and layout. Pictures would be great too.

If there is no room between the track and the backdrop, put buildings or trees in front of the track, so you can't see the track very well. In other words, make the train go behind some scenery.

You will just have to get real creative building up the wall with terrain. You can can also paint the wall as a terrained backdrop or attach 3d pictures and dress them up. How about a picture of the area?

How much is "a few inches"? One or two, or four or five? Also, what's the planned scenery for this area. In one or two inches, even a small building or two, or a board fence to suggest some detail, and perhaps some small, half-depth trees, with a painted backdrop behind will draw the viewer's eye, and if there's a train on the track, the background will...well, just fade into the background. Kevin's suggestion, below, is also a good way to draw the viewer's eye and, at the same time, obscure the view beyond the tracks.

nachoman Wrote:If there is no room between the track and the backdrop, put buildings or trees in front of the track, so you can't see the track very well. In other words, make the train go behind some scenery.

Place a few trees, in groups, on the viewer's side of the tracks, then place a few on the far side of the tracks, spaced to occupy the area opposite the gaps in the first groups: these can be "half trees", with no branches on the side which is away from the viewer, and you can even compress the depth of the modelled side of the tree, too. Then, even some sponge-painted trees on the backdrop will suggest a wooded area, and if you include a scenic highlight or two (small building, vehicle, some cows in a field) on the near side of the tracks, viewers will barely notice the background. What viewers do notice is the background when you've offered them nothing else to amuse them while they wait for a train to arrive.

I often use this idea, even when there's ample depth to the layout (and in most areas, the layout is only a couple of feet deep), as it gives me an opportunity to control the viewing angles. It also gives you more realistic views, with trees, telegraph poles and buildings at least partially "blocking the view".

If you have four or five inches between the track and the backdrop, you can "suggest" quite a bit of scenery, or urban development to obscure what you don't want people to see, while at the same time offering them something else at which to look.

Wayne

I was thinking along the lines of DocWayne. A tall fence and some half-trees in front of painted trees on the backdrop. Maybe some power line poles too.

You can also hide the actual 90* joint by dropping the terrain on the far side of the tracks into a bit of a ditch. If room allows, more of a slope can be created, and the joint hidden under the aforementioned "half-forest", hedge, or behind a fence.

Andrew

Here's an area on my layout where the layout and "sky" meet, and in a fairly obvious way, too. Between this brick power house...


...and the white icehouse, against the backdrop in the photo below...


...the backdrop curves around an outside corner of the room...


While the spot is not especially visible, I used the board fence and a few saplings to occupy any viewer's eye which might stray into this area. Lake Erie is somewhere beyond the fence, so I didn't bother with more trees painted onto the backdrop.


I seldom take train pictures in this area, as the only view of trains here is from the aisle - on a model railroad, with our tight curves, the outside of a curve is not usually a good place from which to view trains, with all those extra-wide gaps showing between the cars. The shop building and crane in the foreground not only block much of the view of the rounded sky, they also attract much more attention. The fence and trees hide the actual meeting of "ground" and "sky", but there's not really any way to conceal the curve in the backdrop. It does, I think, look better than a regular corner, though.

Wayne

Some very good points made Wayne. And by the way I've never seen too many pictures of your layout

Take a tip from Hollywood and TV - use distraction and visual trickery, including mirrors, buildings, natural features and anything else to draw the eye away from the area or to camouflage it as something else.

For example, that annoying corner in a mountainous layout could easily become a cliff face around which the track was forced to bend. In a modern city, tall industrial buildings could camouflage that corner to look like it belonged there all along.

It's usually better to incorporate a feature like that than to simply try to ignore it.

Good advice, thanks everybody.

Hi Kevin,

Here are some ways I've dealt with the too close backdrop:

The second level of track is very close. A retaining wall and foliage above it with a vague building in the background. I'm going to replace the "building" with a hazy photo of a real structure.


Cardboard profiles with ground cover glued to them. Looking at them I see the need to add more foliage to the top of the profile.


Building flats...


Here is how close the track is to the buildings...


Hope that helps...as usual, looking at photos of my work makes me want to go back and improve it!
Ralph

Those are some very good ideas Ralph that I may even use on a couple spots of my layout.

Not only good ideas, but, in my opinion, well-executed ones , too. Very nice work, Ralph.

Wayne

I like it too, Ralph.

Another thought I had was to park several 18 wheeler trailers along the backdrop to disguise the joint. Or if modeling the modern era, a bunch of shipping containers stacked up.

A variation on the many ideas presented thus far is a fence.

Before:


After:


Tom