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Backscenes

JRamsden

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A quick post to say I have just taken delivery of these beautiful panels for Addleford Green's backscene.

 

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They are 3mm Foamex with the images printed on the surface and treated with a matt protective layer. I bought them online from one of many suppliers of this kind of material. I ordered them Monday and they arrived this morning, Thursday! The process was uncomplicated, completed entirely online and they even contacted me when they thought some white would show at the edges. Probably cheaper overall than having images printed separately and less stress than gluing them nice and straight to something myself!

 

The photos feature the Kent landscape not far from my house, taken with a reasonably expensive (10 years ago!) non-SLR camera and stitched together on the computer. Hopefully I made the right measurements and they line up nicely once on the board. I'll post some more photos once they're up. There will be some square joins - something of a divisive subject, indeed all areas of backscenes seem to draw some controversy from what I have seen! - but the board is only small and to include curves was to lose just too much vital space. All joins are going to be disguised with tactically placed scenery.

 

Some image manipulation was required to the photos I originally took before sending for printing. Most of the scenes didn't include enough sky so I had to extend that area. My digital photo editing skills are zero, so everything done was crude and would likely make a true photographer cry. For two panels this involved removing the sky entirely and replacing it with a block of closely colour-matched blue/grey. I thought this might look odd, but apparently that's exactly how the real sky looks round here. For the biggest panel I simply mimicked the sky that existed and flipped a copy of it upwards, like a mirror. Again I thought this might look odd but it's blended in quite nicely. Judge for yourselves!

 

All for now,

Jonathan

 

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5&9Models

They look fabulous, you must be delighted with the results. Appreciate the tip on the use of Foamex and having the print around the edge as well, very helpful.

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JohnR
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They look really great! Who did you order them from and what was the cost?

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JRamsden
On 16/01/2020 at 11:20, 5&9Models said:

They look fabulous, you must be delighted with the results. Appreciate the tip on the use of Foamex and having the print around the edge as well, very helpful.

 

Thanks, I'm really plaesed. Hoping to get them attached to the board today :)

 

I will be clear though, the print does not go around the edge of the Foamex. What they contacted me about was the photo not fitting exactly to the top surface because I had made a miscalculation. Edge printing would have been amazing, however I don't think it would be possible with this material.

 

 

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JRamsden
On 16/01/2020 at 11:26, JohnR said:

They look really great! Who did you order them from and what was the cost?

 

I didn't want to put the actual manufacturer in the main post otherwise it would just be "look at this cool product from so-an-so!" But since you asked... they came from this website: PremierPrint I have no affiliation with the company, just a very happy customer :P

There are loads of places online that offer the same service so I spent a while looking at prices. Prices vary from somewhere in the £30 region for my biggest panel(!) right down to closer to £10 for one panel. PremierPrint appeared to be the cheapest site from my brief research. Can't say it affected the quality or service one bit.

 

I ordered 5 panels in total, one being just plain sky which I didn't bother to photograph. The biggest panel was 119cm by 36cm. The total order including delivery was just under £40. A bargain, I'd say! The best part is you can enter your sizes and options on most of these sites and get a price quote before ordering, so you'll know straight away how much it would cost.

Edited by JRamsden
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MarshLane
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They certainly did you proud Jonathan, as did your photography skills.  Worth thinking about that option for everyone else .. me included :)

 

Rich

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JRamsden
1 hour ago, MarshLane said:

They certainly did you proud Jonathan, as did your photography skills.  Worth thinking about that option for everyone else .. me included :)

 

Rich

 

You're very kind, however my photography "skills" are novice at best. I was simply determined not to use a stock image backscene for this layout, particularly when my camera software makes it so easy to create panoramic shots.

 

I was initially sceptical about using Foamex for a backscene. But now I have gone through the process and received the finished product, I'd highly recommend it for anyone. It seems especially good value for smaller layouts and keeps things nice and light too.

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hucknall byron

Very nice indeed. I am not entirely happy with my current backscene for Bulwell Market and none of the off the shelf offerings are what I am looking for. I don't have any photographic or computer skills to be honest so a bit stuck at the moment.

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JRamsden
On 23/01/2020 at 13:18, hucknall byron said:

Very nice indeed. I am not entirely happy with my current backscene for Bulwell Market and none of the off the shelf offerings are what I am looking for. I don't have any photographic or computer skills to be honest so a bit stuck at the moment.

 

Honestly, please don't be put off. This kind of effect doesn't take any real suite of skills. My camera is nothing special (although it does have a photo stitching feature which does make it easier when taking the photos) and you could make images like this very easily with any camera. A tripod also helps to keep the image as level as possible, but you could use any stable structure. I've used a fence post before! The photos will stilll require some basic cropping top and bottom when put together.

 

I used this free and simple program to stitch the images together: http://matthewalunbrown.com/autostitch/autostitch.html

 

You could practice with some simple shots of maybe 2 or 3 photos to see how it turns out. A lot of these digital printing companies will also help you out with the design stage too, for an added fee I'm sure!

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