After a long delay due to many months of unpacking and organizing, I finally got the lighting and backdrop back up in the new residence. Please pardon the crude construction techniques as I used what I had on hand for the lighting mounts (cheap foam board taped together in sections). This was mostly an experiment to see how I liked the color of the lights and to figure out how to mount them. These were found on Amazon and were quite cheap, if I recall. I have no idea who the manufacturer is, but I do recall it said "warm white" on the box. I like the color, they run extremely cool, and were super easy to install. Just peel n stick. One strand is 16 ft. I used two strands, running them 3 times across the bottom of the foam board. In the photo, the back strand of LEDs is off. I need to find the bad connection, as it was working a few minutes ago.
Observations: I think the sky blue is much too dark. In the store it seemed fine (Krylon rattle can). Easily fixable. The exposed slots (ugly!) are from the former location, and the backdrop was much taller then. I shortened it up, leaving the gross slots exposed. That's also easily fixable. I plan to use hill "flats" similar to what's in the last pic from a screen grab of a fellow modeler's SP layout. I believe it was in one of the Great MRR editions several years ago. The hill flats will cover any exposed slots (4 of them) on the backdrop.
Once the sky blue is redone, I'll enlist the help of my wife (a skilled painter) in painting the backdrop. For the LEDs, I will definitely need a much sturdier mounting surface than the foam board. I was thinking of using strips of 1 by 2 to stick the LED strips onto. I will still need something to trap/reflect the light back down to the layout. Perhaps I can use the foam board for that, since it's doing that job pretty well at the moment. I'll need to replace the foam board panels I'm currently using, since they got completely warped from being stored in the garage for the better part of a year. It's amazing how much a backdrop and good lighting adds to the modeling experience. It's like a diorama effect in a museum. Not that this layout is museum quality...
It's time to get on with finishing up this phase!
