As a sign/shirt maker and a model railroad hobbyist. I have a question. When I built my workbench for building a sign or weeding vinyl to go on a sign or just for decals I put a sheet of 1/8" expanded PVC plastic on the top for a working surface.

Just found out I don't have as much space as I thought. This is the resulting plan.

or: Why I dislike ovals.

We all know that oval layouts suck space out of a layout room by demanding access to all sides of the layout. Yes, you can push them up against the wall but then there is the old reach issue (I'm 5' 8" - I don't reach that far).Having recently returned to the hobby after 30 years doing life (marriage, kids, teens and then their marriage) I initially fell for the oval.

I was thinking about the layout that I want to build, and one of the things I really want to incorporate is a proper backdrop, and ideally some horizon lights between the backdrop and the scenery.  That got me thinking, what about angling the backdrop so that the top is closer to the front than the bottom is?  It would possibly cause more of a color gradient from the horizon lights, as well as possibly reflecting more of them forward into the scene instead of illuminating the underside of the valance.