Well, it's been a while but I eventually found some more railway time. On a previous post I bemoaned my lack of artistic skill when it came to painting clouds. I also tried a plain grey backscene to try to create a feeling of a dull overcast day. Unfortunately I felt that it just looked like a grey bit of wood and didn't contribute to the effect I wanted.

Given all this I started to think about photo backscene. A lot of searching on the internet didn't turn up anything close to what I wanted, so I started to think about taking my own photos. Unfortunately, living in Chicagoland, which is 1) very built up and 2) very flat, isn't conducive to sweeping skyscapes. So I went back to the internet and started looking at photo sites.

I wanted a long, thin photo. Final size about 132" x 18", or 11' x 1.5'. Looking for something that would print up to these dimensions with a reasonable dpi limited choices a lot. Eventually I found a few possibilities, I think they were aimed at people producing 3D computer models and animations. The trouble was I really wanted one I didn't have to pay for. After much searching without finding anything for free I decided to bite the bullet and pay the $30 or so for one.

Once I had the image I had to get it printed. Because of the dimensions I needed, finding a vendor who could print it wasn't that easy, but it wasn't too hard either. It's just a case of reading the vendors websites very carefully and doing some research on the terms used in the industry and on the equipment they use. I eventually decided on a small outfit in New Mexico and within a week or so I had a very nice but very long print.

The next problem was how to fix it to the backscene. The backscene it's self is hardboard, by now covered with a few coats of grey latex paint of course. In my innocence I had just imagined I could just glue it on to the the hardboard. Once I had the print it was pretty obvious, even to me, that this wouldn't be very acceptable. Imagine trying to stick an 11' photo down in one go, to an uneven vertical surface and ending up with no bumps ripples or tears and you'll start to see the problem.

Originally I had hoped to have curved corners. I realised though that the problem of mounting the print coupled with the small space I had available, which would make the corners pretty tight, would make it very difficult. Therefore I opted for the "sky with corners" solution.

After a long conversation with a chap at my local arts supply shop I decided on mounting the image on foam board using adhesive sheets rather than spray on adhesive. Commandeering our table-tennis table and taking my courage in both hands I managed to mount the whole image in one go. I used 5/16" foam core board. Of course I couldn't get a foam core sheet long enough, so I had to use 3 pieces held together by the image on the front and duct tape on the back. I then cut the mounted image into 3, these being the 2 end pieces and one long back piece.

I'm fairly pleased with the result, especially considering I had never even mounted a 6"x4" photo before. I'm not too sure the scaling/sizing is right, but I think it does capture the atmosphere I wanted much better than grey hardboard. See for yourself in the pictures below. It was difficult to do it justice with the lighting and space I had available but hopefully you get the idea.

John.