As part of the reworking of the spring module, I wanted to take the opportunity to replace the original photographic backscene with a painted one, in keeping with the other two modules. There's nothing wrong with photographic backscenes, of course, and in many ways they'll be the most realistic, but I prefer the flexibility of a painted one, as well as finding them easier to alter as one's ideas change.

The original backscene consisted of card sheets with a photographic layer glued on. In an ideal world, I'd have replaced the whole lot with a continuous sheet of flexible MDF, but unfortunately the thickness of such a sheet would have created problems where the backscene pushes uncomfortably close to the track. So - before exploring other options such as thin plastic or canvas - I decided to have a go at overpainting the original. I wasn't sure how it would work out, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, so with paints and mixing tray in hand off I went. The sky was painted using just two acrylic colours, cerulean blue and white, applied using a wide, soft brush, and with the paint used straight from the tube. I kept at it for several days until I was happy with the general impression of clouds and blue bits, suggestive of a partially overcast sky. I avoid trying to suggest shadowed clouds as I find this can overpower the landscape unless done very skillfully. The card cockled badly (as expected) but gradually flattened itself out again to an acceptable level.

Next I started building up the distant hills, using a sap green, white and only a few other tints, keeping it all well de-saturated. Once I was happy with the general form of the hills, hedges and so on, I applied a further
layer of dilute white just to push it all back a bit more. Ideally one would paint all this stuff at a comfortable position on a table, but I had to reach in and paint it in-situ, using long brushes and resting my hand on the
roof of the ruined barn and so on. Detail work is definitely out!

At the recent Bristol O Gauge show I'd been impressed with the scenic dioramas done by Paul Bambrick, some of which use intermediate background layers to create a kind of 3-d backscene. There was scope for giving this a go on this module, so I added a second, closer line of hills spaced a few mm closer than the main one, and painted a bit more vividly. In the flesh, the 3-d effect is surprisingly effective. I think the next job will be to treat both layers to another white wash, just to de-saturate the greens a little more and push it all a bit further into the distance. There might even be scope for a third layer in places.

There's an element of guesswork here, as I expect the colours to shift a bit once I get the layout's lighting rig back into place. They say you should always paint under the same illumination as the finished model, but in this case ease of access won the day. Never mind, though, as any discrepancies can always be shifted back a bit with additional glazes. In general I'm pleased with the impression of open space around the farm, which in reality is a very shallow scene.