If you’ve been following along with my videos you may have noticed I have a strong focus on roads at the moment.

  Hi all, I was thinking about the problems of adding photos to backdrops. If the whole thing including the sky is part of the photo it requires a very tall print and if one just prints the lower part with trees and structures and glues it onto a painted sky it requires a lot of trimming and blending to get a realistic look to the upper edge of the tree line, etc.  So I'm wondering if a backdrop decal could be printed to be applied to a painted sky?

Now that  have my main yard track in place, I can start thinking about filling in some of the structures and details.  The photo below shows an area with a spur I would like to put in some sort of scrap yard to park a couple of gondola's for unloading or loading - not a lot of room for buildings there except maybe a small yard office building or shed and some fencing to surround the end of the spur.

The largest area is in the foreground between the fascia and the single track spur - probably about 5 inches between the spur and the yard lead thats behind it.

After watching TMTV's series on painting backdrops with Chris Lyon, I gathered materials and gave it a shot.  For reference, my switching layout is N scale, five foot long by 18 inches wide, and the backdrop is 1/8" masonite that rises 12" above the foam.

Getting up close, you can see just how abstract it really is.