Backdrop ideas.

[Bsklarski]

Looking for some backdrop ideas for my HCD layout. Something 18" high perhaps and almost the full length. I would guess something that sits down in a slot in the foam and is helped up by backdrop buildings ect?

[DKS]

You can get an 18" wide HCD.

[Bsklarski]

Hmm. A HCD as a backdrop for a HCD layout.

[Scottl]

How about a sheet of 2" or 1" thick foam board?

[Bsklarski]

How about a sheet of 2" or 1" thick foam board?

I thought about this and gluing sheet styrene to both sides to add strength and paint that. However I have a hard time finding a local source for the styrene.

[Lemosteam]

You can buy 18" formica.  Very strong and would stay vertical in a slot  or if fastened to the edge of an HCD.  the glue-side of the formica would provide an excellent gluing surface for an image-type background.  Also Formica has very little expansion/contraction issues.  A thin luaun frame laid flat would prevent it from curling on its corners.

[DKS]

A thin luaun frame laid flat would prevent it from curling on its corners.

Hmmm... a thin luaun frame... like an HCD?

BTW, the glue on Formica is usually heat-activated and not very smooth. Might not work so great for attaching a paper image.

[Scottl]

These are all options, but I think a simple sheet of foam would be fine, easy to build, and would not add weight.  If you don't mind building something, David's suggestion would be good, but I assume the reason you started with a HCD base is that you wanted to spend your efforts on things other than woodwork.  Just some thoughts, any of these ideas would work.

[DKS]

If you don't mind building something, David's suggestion would be good, but I assume the reason you started with a HCD base is that you wanted to spend your efforts on things other than woodwork.

Precisely. Which is why I suggested an HCD backdrop. You just buy it and attach it to the base (some wood glue should be good enough). Apply whatever backdrop you want--paint, photo, etc.--and you're done. Nothing to build.

But foam would work too, naturally.

[basementcalling]

1 1/2 inch foam would support itself nicely. 1 inch not so much.

A HCD backdrop for a HCD layout would be a HCD L girder. 

[jimmo]

Ok you guys, I give up. What is HCD?

I tried to look it up on the internet and this is what it told me:

HCD   Housing and Community Development
HCD   Hardware Configuration Definition (IBM mainframes)
HCD   Health Care Delivery
HCD   Human Capacity Development
HCD   Hockey Club Davos (Swiss Ice Hockey Club)
HCD   Host Controller Device
HCD   Hate Crew Deathroll (Children of Bodom music album)
HCD   Hyundai California Design (concept car)
HCD   Human cDNA Database
HCD   Hadfield Cawkwell Davidson (UK architectural firm)
HCD   Hernia, Congenital Diaphragmatic
HCD   Hot City Destroyers (Phoenix, AZ track bike crew)
HCD   Hard Copy Device
HCD   Hazard Control Department
HCD   Hyperion Certified Developer (Oracle)
HCD   Hydraulic Component Design
HCD   hexachlorodisilane
HCD   Hardware Command Distribution
HCD   Highest Conditional Density
HCD   Health Care Directive (legal document)
HCD   Health Care DataWorks, LLC

[dnhouston]

Hollow Core Door 

[jimmo]

Hollow Core Door 

Thanks David.

Apparently a hollow core door was just not in my mental model railroad book of standards and practices.

[wm3798]

HCDs... Not just for HCD layouts anymore!

Lee

[Zox]

Some people are OCD; some people here are OCHCD.