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Bound and determined to build it better than his previous layout, Gerry walks through his evolved process for handling the installation of a hardboard backdrop. Plenty of neat tips and trick can be found in this and other episodes of Back on Track, an exclusive Trains.com series!
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Gerry,
Which BEHR “White” did you use to make the haze color for the backdrops?
Recently watched a video on NMRA links that showed the DCC guy bending masonite around a 6″ diameter curve for a module layout by wetting the masonite to bend it. Wish I would have seen that when I was bending 4′ high by 6′ long pieces around the 4 corners of my layout. Not an easy task to bend and screw to the wall sheets that large, but with enough plaster you can fix anything.
Binge watching this new series Gerry and thanks for documenting your new layout so well. Especially like your technique for painting/installing the backdrop!
Don’t binge watch, Allan Even *I* get sick of seeing that much of me. 🙂
Thanks Gerry, Loved it.
Really enjoying this series! One request – can the trains.com team provide a convenient tag for making it easy to locate all of the “Back on Track” episodes in this series.
Gary – I always love your videos. Did you mention what thickness of hardboard you used? If so, I missed it.
Garen — the Masonite is a nominal 1/8” which makes it easy to bend around the 16” diameter curves without doing anything like wetting the back or adding saw kerfs to the back.
Ted — Doing one series is hard enough! Not to mention building a layout and moving into a new house, all at the same time. So we’ve shelved “Off the Rails” for the time being. But you’ll get a glimpse of it in a future “Back on Track” episode!
Gerry
I went to make a comment on “Off the Rails” recent episode but got a message that I already made a similar comment.
Gee, maybe I should keep track of what comment I’ve made before!
Like nearly everyone that has a model railroad, space is always the hardest to come by. Room in the house basement got too crowded so my layout had to move to the detached garage. I built a room on one side of the garage leaving enough space to park a car on the other side. Ended up with a 12×26 foot room. Planned on what I wanted and painted the walls with rounded corners sky blue then since I’ve been doing oil paintings for many years, I painted all of my backdrop before any benchwork was started. Worked out pretty well over all.
I love your new series. Keep up the good work. Are you still going to do your Off the Rails series?