ianp Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 I have been browsing around for ready-made French scenic backdrops for my N scale model layout. In short, there don't seem to be many on the market. Does anyone here have any more thorough knowledge of what may be available? And on the same subject, has anyone tried to construct a backdrop using images from old French postcards? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Hayter Posted May 13, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 13, 2015 Hi Ian Cannot help regarding the commercially available backdrops. It may in part depend on what you are looking to model. Some of the Faller countryside ones looked a bit like parts of Burgundy to me, but if you are looking for a town centre scene then I am not aware of anything available. Regarding the use of old postcards - I assume you mean coloured ones and not the sepia toned, or hand coloured sepia cards from the start of the last century. When I constructed the backscene for my H0 layout back in the 1980s I was faced with the same lack of suitable commercial materials. I therefore built mine up using skypaper, pictures from calendars, a lot of items cut out from tourist brochures and any other suitable looking picture - The front of boxes supplying some of the kits I used for example. Typically the build up might have been skypaper and then on top some rolling hills from a calendar - but often with a quite inappropriate foreground - either subject, era or scale and then on top A building or buildings from a tourist guide - to obscure the inappropriate bits from the calendar and possibly the yet another layer to hide the base of the building(s) if they are not aligned correctly with the baseboard. This might be bushes, a vehicle or whatever. Things to watch out for. Perspective - your buildings in particular need to have the right perspective to fit next to one another and to fit with the model on the baseboard. Overlap - you will need to overlap your various pictures to help hide the joins. You may for example have two calendar pictures for rolling hills that you want to fit side by side, but of course there is a mismatch at the join. This could be hidden by a high building (church tower) or a tree (thank goodness for the French love of Poplar trees!). Matt finish - glossy pictures just look wrong. You can always spray with matt varnish. Colour match - you will need to balance the colour match between the various elements and remember that colours tend to fade towards a blue grey shade as you go further and further back. Except for things supposedly just off the base boards avoid bright or stark colours. White edges - there is a lot of fiddly cutting out and some items on a thicker paper or card will show a white edge. You can hide this using felt tipped pens of a similar colour to the picture - which may mean changing colours several times. And when it is all finished you may find that some aspect sticks out inappropriately. This can be carefully toned down with a bit of paint to a more appropriate colour. A lot of work but it will provide something unique and can look very effective. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Hayter Posted May 13, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 13, 2015 Sorry but another consideration when choosing your pictures is shadows and lighting direction. Shadows need to be consistent otherwise the various bits of the back scene will just jar. They also need to be consistent with the layout and since we generally use flat lighting (from above and coming from various directions, so there are no real shadows on the layout) I tend to look for pictures with no noticeable shadows. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foulounoux Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 LR Modelisme have French backscenes in the last edition of loco review 3 version each in 3 sizes Village cote chaud Loire Valle Roche la moliere Loire Montagne. Alps de Provence 2.5m long. By 30cm 40cm 50cm 29,90 euros for 30cm 35,00 euros for 40cm 49,90 euros for 50cm www.lrmodelisme.com Hope that's of use Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Hayter Posted May 14, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 14, 2015 Good spot Colin. They would not work for me but may be just what Ian is looking for. I have failed however to find them on the LR website, which is a bit disappointing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foulounoux Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Good spot Colin. They would not work for me but may be just what Ian is looking for. I have failed however to find them on the LR website, which is a bit disappointing. I realised afterwards when I did find them on the website that they are HO scale And it took half an hour to find them Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianp Posted May 15, 2015 Author Share Posted May 15, 2015 Thanks. The new backscenes are in the boutique (shop) section of the LR Modelisme site. Search for "decor". They aren't quite what I need, nor are the other backscenes, but thanks for pointing them out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jivebunny Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Ouch, shame they're more than four times the price of Gaugemaster backdrops (which are actually 25cm / 10in longer than these)... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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