It's always great when someone comes up with new ways or

should I say a new approach to making scenic details In Model Railroading. Worst part about this article will be waiting for my DVD copy to arrive. I like the idea of the oversize diorama and home made photo back drop to isolate and build a large industrial complex in 1/8 the space it would actually need if you were to build all the structures in 3D.

The Cypox Bonder Mike Confalone uses is a product I have never seen before and I would really like some more information about the product. Like where to buy what it's made of and cost comparison to other glues as well as drying time and what kind if any order does it produce.

Fantastic Article Mike!! Thanks for Sharing and letting MRH produce the DVD Video of your scenic practices for all of us to enjoy and learn from.

Dan

Cypox

Great Article

Eagerly awaiting part 2.

Feedback for Paper Mill Article

I agree a good start on the article and I'm anxiously waiting for the remaining installments and CD, especially for someone who is also modeling a paper mill. My only frustration is some lack of detail in part of the back drop description, which I hope will be forthcoming in the next installment. For someone who is looking at using photo backdrops, I'm frustrated to read that the background was captured "from an average viewing distance".  What does this mean? I've read several articles or comments on this technique, however, one of the details that always seems to be missed is how far back to photograph your subject and how you should calculate the height of the buildings so that they retain the proper perspective. My first attempts were to shot from a distance of approximately 200 feet away, which might be considered an average distance and looked great in the camera's view screen, however, after stitching them together found that the buildings were actually greatly smaller than adjacent scale buildings. The other piece of information that I found lacking was what are the typical file sizes that a commercial printer expects to work with? It would be great to provide some info about the resolution which was used and what size tiff file (on average) that a printer may expect or can work with. Lastly, what is the approximate cost for using a photo backdrop such as this one? For modelers on a budget, is this method of doing a great realistic backdrop the cost of a few pieces of rolling stock or something much higher. Again, don't want this too seem highly critical as I loved the article but just wished for some more detail.   

Photo backdrops

Great points Ken. The article and DVD focus primarily on the myriad scenery techniques employed in building out this mill. It's full of meat and potatoes. 

An article just on building photo backdrops is certainly warranted. But let me try to address your questions.

Building high-res photo backdrops takes practice. Much of it is trial and error. You need to develop a skill for recognizing proper perspective. This too takes practice. Average viewing distance is subjective. I was probably 50 yards away from the mill...perhaps further. Use this general rule - not too close and not too far. No science there, but it's more just common sense and a bit of trial and error. Generally speaking, it's better to back up and get some distance between you and your subject, especially if you are looking to deepen a scene. Pictures on a backdrop should not appear as if they are in the foreground. The perspective should suggest that the distant mountain or hillside is, in fact distant, so it should be relatively low. Most of my general scenic photo backdrops are 5-8" high. Anything higher and the illusion of distance is lost. Use a standard 50mm, or slight wide-angle lens. Do no use telephoto compression of any kind when making photo backdrops.This will cause distortion and skew the perspective. 

Specs. This particular file was a 300DPI .tiff weighing in at about 350MB. Most printers or graphics places can handle files of this size. Cost? $160 at my printer. Probably less at a retail-type graphics house. Worth every penny. We spend thousands on locos and freight cars, yet people cringe at the thought of a couple hundred bucks for a photo backdrop. Nothing will give you more bang for the buck than a properly executed photo backdrop. 

Sizing. This was the first time I had done an industrial scene on a photo backdrop. I used the boxcar loading shed as a guide for sizing the entire picture. I knew that a typical 40 or 50' boxcar would fit snuggly inside that shed. To test this, I created the initial montage of images, and then cropped the photo so just the shed remained. I then printed this out and took it down to the layout room to test fit a boxcar. Too big? Resize the photo, reducing it and test again. Too small, make it a bit larger and try again. This was trial and error until I got the fit I was comfortable with. If one area of the photo displays the proper scale, the rest will by default. So, by using the shed as a "size guide" the rest of the photo automatically scales. This basic strategy is what I employ when sizing a backdrop. 

This is just scratching the surface, Let me know if I can be of further assistance. Enjoy the rest of the article and the DVD.

Mike Confalone

St Regis Paper Mill

Mike, my friend

the mill scene looks awesome. I also have an alcove area that I'd been planning to put (yet another) town into - but I think the layout needs a real operational center and something like a paper mill really fits the bill. I always preferred working the mill job on Paul Dolkos' B&M - it was amazing how a small area (and a deceptively simple track arrangement - I compliment you on yours . . .) can keep a crew busy for most of a session. 

Marty

Hi Marty. Thanks for the

Hi Marty.

Thanks for the kind words. What's not so awesome is the head shot on the MRH home page! It needs to be bigger! Just kidding.

Glad you like the finished product. It was a blast to work on. A ton of effort for such a small space, but worth every minute. The next op. session will probably have crews fighting for the job that handles that mill. If you ever make it up this way, c'mon down.

Mike

St Regis paper mill

Great article, couldn't be more appropriate for me as someone who's also building a paper mill complex and wanting to use photo backdrops. Shame my nearest US paper mill is around 3000 miles away... If you know of any online sources of good-quality photo material on this subject, I'd be grateful to find out about them.

Looking forward to the future instalments, and will be downloading the DVD content as soon as I can. Thanks for sharing your techniques.

Jock

Photo Backdrops

Thanks for the additional info Mike, it puts a much better perspective on the article and gives me some of the details I was looking for.  Sometimes articles provide lots of detail, just not everything the reader was looking for.  I have taken a similar approach to the Quebec paper mill I have modeled. Since the mill fits into a corner, the background for one side consists of a photo backdrop and the corresponding side was done by painting in some backdrop buildings and scenery. I pasted the photos to gator board but I've never liked the effect as they seemed to have the wrong perspective.  The painted buildings were better, although I'm no artist, since I was able to control the perspective and the relative size. I'm going to give some of your ideas a try and see if I can't come up with a better set of photos and sizing. As I said before, looking forward to the next installments and the video.  

Photo Backdrops

I am no artist but even if I was I would use a photo backdrop. Even the commercially available ones, generic as they are, are superior (IMHO) to almost every painted backdrop I've ever seen. It sure adds a lot of dimensionality to this project. Well done!

Great article!

I was so happy to see that we were getting an article on Mike's layout, and now it will be in 3 parts - even better! I too have used styrene for backdrops, with sky blue paint and in some areas with photo backdrops. It has worked well and held up well over time.

I like the idea of one long print and then attaching it simply with painters tape - good idea and not complicated. Not sure if this was done, but on photos I printed on an inkjet, I lightly sprayed the prints with a clear matte finish to protect from any water based scenery process that might come later (the ink could run). This may not be an issue depending on how the image is printed commercially.

Looking forward to more info on the scenery and building techniques in upcoming issues.

I just downloaded the video in HD format. All 12 parts took maybe an hour total to download - no big deal really after reading comments about how long it was going to take. I now have it on all my devices (Mac, iPhone and iPad) so I can watch when the mood strikes. Based on what I have watched so far I highly recommend that to everyone. And I applaud MRH for giving us this video as a download which is much more usable today than DVD format (at least for me).

Mike McNamara

Delran, NJ

Fantastic. Thanks

I have just returned to model railroading after a 30 year plus absence.  My layout is based on a southern USA shortline serving a large paper complex.  This article is just what I needed to show me what can be done.  It's amazing what you can learn by reading about or watching what others have successfully done.

My mill will be on a 3' by 8' module with a lot of compression involved.  Having worked in the rail industry my entire working career I have a great deal of experience in dealing with large rail served paper mills.  I'm trying to incorporate as much as I can into this module.  While I can't use the photo backdrop concept, there is much in this article I can use.

Thanks for the continued inspiration.

Parts 2 and 3

Glad the article has been helpful. Parts 2 and 3 will discuss lots more of the scenic techniques I used. Paper mills are terrific industries for model railroads, and most importantly, they generate diverse traffic.

Mike Confalone

Maybe the best article yet in MRH

For me, Mike Confalone breaks new ground in several areas:

1.  he tries to do the impossible by representing a large industry in a small space;

2.  he tries to do it in a space that is not only small but awkward;

3.  he uses techniques that are pretty new if not cutting edge;

4.  his execution is excellent;

5.  he is not shy in talking about costs and difficulties where they exist;

6.  he presents the results brilliantly, apparently in multiple formats; and

7.  the editors gave him the room he needed.

Congratulations to everyone involved!

This article helps to make up for some of the heartbreak I felt when I saw in MRP that he had abandoned what was one of my favorite layouts of all time to build yet another (hohum) TT and TO layout.