Tag Archives: backdrop

Let There Be… Green!

Painting Backdrops 3
The finished scene showing the brighter foreground trees painted with yellow and mars black mix–what a difference the painted backdrop makes for the scene!

I collected art supplies to paint my backdrops many months ago, but like any project that intimidates me, they sat around in a drawer until I could get up the nerve to pull the trigger. I’ve done one painting my entire life about 30 years ago for an art class, so my experience level with this is just a hair above zero. I’d like to thank Jeff Kraker who sent me a link to a video series by Chris Lyon he followed on how to paint backdrops using a few basic acrylic colors and an impressionistic “blob” method. I learned a TON from this five-part series including the fact that you shouldn’t actually use green paint–how counter-intuitive is that? Having watched the series twice and armed with supplies, I finally jumped in! As you can see in the pictures, I’m no Michelangelo, but I’m happy with them for now, and I’m sure I’ll make some adjustments and touch-ups as I gain more experience.

Painting Backdrops 1
Step 1 is to outline the distant ridges in chalk, and step 2 is to paint the distant ridges a bluish gray

My first step is to outline the top of the distant ridges. I actually used a low angle view from Google Earth to do this, so the basic contours are actually what you’d see standing in the actual scene. Kid’s sidewalk chalk is a good medium for this as it can be easily erased with a wet wash cloth. Next I painted my distant ridges–this was something the series didn’t cover as all their scenery was closer. One thing I wanted to do was to nail the color of distant hills. I live in the mountains, so every day I get to see that distant hills covered in trees are not green at all–they’re a shade of gray-blue, almost purple. To get a color close to this, I mixed some of my sky blue backdrop color with a little mars black, and a little cerulean blue which looks about right to me, though if anything, they’re not purple enough. I applied the paint using the techniques in the videos, just wet the brush (A No 10 round in this case) and dab, dab, dab, blob, blob, blob. I didn’t want distinct trees in the distance, so I mixed the paint pretty good, leaving just a little variation and shading.

Painting Backdrops 2
Once the distant ridge is in, step 3 is to paint the next nearest ridge a little darker but still not bright green

Next, I added some primary yellow to the palette and started moving to the second ridgeline, still using a good bit of the sky blue but now adding more yellow which makes a nice Woodland Scenics-ish green when mixed with the mars black. Once the second ridge was in, I felt it didn’t have enough definition, so I dabbed the brush in some mars black and touched the base color without mixing it in and “blobbed” in some shadows. Finally I transitioned to the larger trees near the bottom. No sky blue, just a lot of yellow and a little mars black barely mixed and blob, blob, blob, again adding some areas of shadow with a little more black in the mix.

Painting Backdrops Corner
This is the one hard corner of backdrop on the layout–I think once I play with the lighting it will be a little less stark

The result is what you see here. It’s certainly no real art, and it doesn’t look nearly as nice as the backdrops in the video. Still, I think it gives a decent impression of a deciduous forest and Appalachian ridges that doesn’t distract from the foreground. I also think the color will blend pretty well with common light and medium green ground foam and foliage. I did about 15′ of linear backdrop in under 2 hours… not a bad return on time invested. I love what it does to the layout feel, as well. For the first time since I started building the layout, when you walk into the layout room it feels Appalachian. Looking forward to painting more and improving on my bare-bones techniques!

Blue Sky in St Charles!

Painted lower level backdrop
Painted backdrop wrapping around the helix

There is now a pale blue sky in St Charles, VA! This past week has been “backdrop week” on the layout, and today I finished sanding and painting the blue color on the backdrop. It’s amazing what a difference the backdrop makes in giving shape to the scenes. This is also a big step because it’s one step further than I got with my last layout before I had to tear it down–it’s good to surpass the progress of the previous effort.

Masonite seam
There’s a vertical seam between two Masonite panels in the middle of this pick and an upper screw–can you find them?

The backdrop, like the fascia, is 1/8″ Masonite (or “hardboard” at some stores). I know a lot of modelers like Masonite because of its smoothness and flexibility, but over the years I’ve heard one repeated complaint: “it’s nearly impossible to fill holes and cover seams because nothing will stick to it.” If you’re worried about this, worry no more! I find that lightweight spackling compound (I use DAP Patch-N-Paint) works perfectly on Masonite. A couple of tips. First, make sure you countersink the screw holes so the screw heads are at least 1/32″ below the face of the Masonite to give enough depth for the spackle to work–this is tough to do without going through the 1/8″ board, but don’t worry if you have to patch an extra hole. Next, I apply a layer of the spackle over the screws and across any joints with a plastic putty knife to avoid scratching the Masonite. I clean it up a little with the knife, but messy is ok. After it dries for about 1-2 hours, I use a damp washcloth to scrub off the excess spackle. This usually leaves a bit of a depression in the holes and seams, so I put on a second layer of spackle. After this completely dries, I sand it with 150-grit sandpaper until it’s even with the Masonite surface and wipe it once again with a damp washcloth. Once painted, I have to look very carefully to see the seams, and the screw holes all but disappear.

For the color, I wanted a very light sky blue, enough to look blue but that kind of whitish and hazy blue on the horizon. I stood in Home Depot for 20 minutes with pictures of Appalachian scenes on my phone comparing the color to all the options Behr had to offer. I finally decided on this color in a flat finish (Behr calls it “After Rain”), and I’m pretty happy with it. If anything it’s a little more blue than I’d hoped, but the hue looks pretty natural, and it’s not too dark. Two coats with a roller gave the backdrop a nice even look. The backdrops are all ready to support some scenery forms now.

I must say, I’m going to miss taking pictures of the Mayflower Tipple mock-up with a nice white plastic insulation blanket as the backdrop… ok, no I’m not.