making a backscene standout

[banburysaint]

My wife would like to have elements of our backscene stand slightly proud of the rest so it gives a greater impression of depth. Can any one provide some of advice of what to put behind them? Thanks

[Guest]

Very thin foamboard or plastic sheet can be used to allow some parts of a backscene to stand a little proud but go easy on the depth and beware of shadows. I understand what you're trying to achieve, but as a purely personal preference, I've always liked a backscene to "disappear" and not draw any attention to itself or away from the model.

[Memphis32]

I guess that depends on whether the backscene is behind the modelling or is part of the modelling - sounds like banburysaint's wife is heading for the latter :-)

[katwigan]

My wife used her own "Paper Tole" craft skills on my last layout to do exactly that with some old Peco back scenes as an experiment. Unfortunately I do not have any photos of the outcome which improved the limited appearance by many fold.

I am looking forward to letting her loose on the backscenes for the new layout. The basic process involves using several layers of backscene to build up a 3d version, perhaps the suggested use of foam board is the way to go.

Type " examples of Paper Tole" into  Google, there is some incredible 3d work there

Kevan

[altone]

Many years ago I gave a bit of a 3d effect to a backscene by just cutting out buildings, mounting them on card and glueing to the base backscene.

 

I liked the final product , a bit like extremely low relief buildings.

 

Share your results with us banburysaint

 

cheers

 

Gerry C

[RhBBob]

I use 'low relief' buildings on a 2 foot wide layout mainly because of space considerations:

 

Something like this:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/winterschlaf/14350418366/in/set-72157626811538277

 

Also useful are pictures of buildings cut from thin card and simply stuck on as here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/winterschlaf/14372644104/in/set-72157626811538277

 

The combination seems to work quite well for me.  The backscene itself, although a commercial product, was 'cut out' and stuck to a pre-painted sky.  I can then adjust the colours and the clouds until it looks (reasonably) realistic.

[DKGL]

I use a combination of Full / Half relief buildings, as well as printed card ones. The baseboard depth is 15".

[Graham Hughes]

The issue you need to watch with this sort of thing is the perspective. What might look like greater depth from a direct, front on, view could just look odd from a more oblique view from towards the end of the layout. Flat bits of scenery sticking out of the sky on raised layers of foamboard might not look that realistic when viewed from 45 degrees. It can be hard to get back scenes that look like they continue the built model to look effective from all angles.

I think I am in the same camp as Pete above in that the backscene is there to stop the operator's pullover, or the wallpaper, intruding into the visual image of the layout and ideally should be as unobtrusive as possible.