Blog- PJBambrick's Blog - One way to do a backscene street in a limited space

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Here's a way of cheating with a gap in a row of backscene buildings.  It helps to avoid the common problem of trying to make a road surface blend into a vertical backscene where there's no space behind to play with.

 

There are a couple of these to do soon, and so this is one method I'm going to suggest.  Doing them with a bit of a curve in the road also helps when seen from different viewpoints.

 

 

The gap between the buildings here must be represented as a built up street, using low relief buildings.

It has to be done without any of the road being painted on as a sharp change from a horizontal surface to a vertical painting.

 

 

The viewing height & horizon line make a difference to how this will work, so it's an important datum to use as part of the drawing out process.

I have done one of these as a mockup just in card & it works OK.

The vanishing point at the beginning of the curve (the street corner) dictates the initial angle, and all the features on the receding buildings then follow these guidelines as they progress round behind the plane of the opposite front buildings.

 

 

The road surface actually climbs up, with the amount of climb ideally dictated by the height of the horizon line.

The width diminishes as it progresses around, but because it isn't structural, it's surface could be done in done in laminated layers of thin card.

 

 

It does mean reproducing the architectural features so they follow the guide lines by scratch building.

The individual buildings could now be traced from the card pattern

Particular prototypes could be digitally adjusted until they conform to the pattern in a chosen position.

 

I'll make another post when I've done one of them, with a photo in situ on the layout.

 

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