Grand Trunk Southern

[MVW]

Beautiful work! So, to make sure I understand, the backdrop is essentially printed on 8.5"x11" self-adhesive labels, which are tiled together?

Jim

[C855B]

Super write-up. I have a 13x19 inkjet photo printer, so if I can get the label stock in 11x17 or 13x19 I may just follow your lead. They look good great, my wife (the resident artist) asks how you were able to piece together the images without shadow lines.

As far as source images, I'll give LARC Products a serious look, but also we are figuring on a road trip next year to the areas we are modeling. I plan to bring plenty of film.

[Bendtracker1]

Those look really good!
In the photos, it's not very easy to see the joints of the Avery sheets.

[shark_jj]

Yes, they are 8.5X11 inch Avery labels.  I usually take off the first couple of backing strips and then work to align the sides together.  Once I have it aligned and pressed tight on the joint and then take the rest of the backing strips off and press down the entire label.  When you are working on the alignment, as long as you apply the label lightly you can lift it off again if it isn't aligned properly.  Like everything else, practice makes perfect.  Also, the labels aren't thick so in a couple of places where I needed re-alignment I just overlapped the edges and it isn't noticeable. 

As to the inkjet printer.  I also have an inkjet printer and have tried printing my own backdrops in the past.  When you price out the cost of the ink you go through, getting a printer to laser print them isn't much more costly.  Label included I think I was paying around $1.30 CAN per sheet.  I once calculated my Inkjet was costing me 30 plus cents per sheet and then the cost of the labels which is towards 40 cents per label. 

I was also led to believe that there was the potential for bleeding with inkjet printing if you hit it with a wetting agent like diluted white glue when you are working on the scenery.  When I do work on the scenery, I cover my backdrop with pieces of cardstock, trimmed to fit and masking taped to the backdrop, but following Peter's principle you get the odd leak through.  With the laser jet printing I just clean off the print with no damage.

[C855B]

Thank you. I was able to find 11x17 label sheets, not Avery, however. I'm focused on 11x17 because I have around 125' to cover. Like your project, two of the LARC volumes have horizon views very suitable for the regions I'm covering. I don't know if there is 11x17 laser printer capacity locally, so I may just suck it up and feed the inkjet. My gross estimate from previous poster work is doing it this way would be roughly $1 per foot, everything considered. I can deal with that.

As far as durability and moisture resistance, I would have no problem spritzing the inkjet output with a clear satin as a fixative. Wouldn't survive a downpour, but accidents, happy or otherwise, wouldn't be a problem.

[eja]

Oh, this is serious stuff !

I have been in a long funk about how to ever build a layout that I could complete in my lifetime and have something that looks good.

Your work has either inspired me or gotten in a lot of trouble as I may once again as the "property manager" about dedicating some real estate to a railroad.

Beautiful work and thanks for the link !

eja

[LIRR]

excellent work on the backdrops...

[Lemosteam]

@shark_jj those look really, really good and I like you simple, logical (and cost effective) way you went about this.

Sorry if I missed this, but what is the backing material you used under the labels?

[shark_jj]

The backdrop is 1/8 inch hardboard painted with a latex paint

[GaryHinshaw]

Outstanding.  Thank you for posting the techniques.  This will likely fit my needs very well.

[thomasjmdavis]

"printed on a Laser printer by a Print Shop on Full Page Avery Labels (which have sticky backs) and applied by me"

@shark_jj -

I spent a career building stage sets and displays, and those are definitely professional level seams- I never would have guessed there was one every 11 inches.  Good timing too, as I am just starting work on a new layout, and was facing the question of how to best create backdrops for it- I can do the clouds and sky, but am going to need urban backdrops and rolling country hills, and lots of them- so this may be the ideal solution.
Thanks!

[garethashenden]

If you're interested in more varied locomotive liveries, a lot of CN subsidiaries seem to have pooled locomotives. There a lots of pictures of GT, GTW, DWP, and CN power on the CV, and I've seen CV locomotives far from home as well. So a few of those wouldn't be that out of place.

[LIRR]

these backdrops convinced me to try the LARC product. I ordered a CD today...

[shark_jj]

Sometime in the last year there was an article in MR about using Pine Bark for shale type rocks along the right of way.  I decided to give it a try.  I quite like the effect.  The first picture shows the pine bark pieces sitting in my ground goop hardshell.  I bought a bag of garden pine bark for $6.00 and I have enough pieces to do 100 layouts.  That also meant I could go through the pieces and be quite selective about the ones I used.  I tried to select pieces that would fit together both vertically and horizontally.  The next step was painting them.  I had a sampler of grey latex paint from Home Depot that I had picked up for another project that didn't pan out, so using a small brush, I painted the bark with the grey latex.  The next part started quite by accident, I was working on the area around the rocks and spraying the area with scenic cement.  The latex paint hadn't quite dried yet and ran a little.  This allowed some of the brown of the bark to show through, and actually I quite like the colouring that resulted.  That can be seen in picture #2.  When I did the next scene I did the same technique, applying the scenic cement and ground foam while the paint was still wet, allowing it to run a little.  In any event, if you want some shale rock, I think the effect is quite good.  The bark pieces have a 3D effect which can be difficult to achieve with castings and the size (scale) of the bark pieces is quite good.   

[3DTrains]

Holy Toledo - what a great technique! I agree that the bit of brown showing through adds quite a bit of realism.'

Cheers!
Marc - Riverside