The upper level of my two-level layout is all narrow gauge, depicting a portion of the former Denver & Rio Grande Western’s Fourth Division line in southwestern Colorado and northern New Mexico.
Painting the Backdrop
Although my railroad room is on the small side – only 13 feet by 16 feet, I have 40 linear feet of painted backdrop, with another 10 feet yet to paint behind my Chama scene. The only modeling task that has scared me more than backdrop painting, is painting and reassembling a brass steam locomotive, praying that it will run again. That said, with no formal art training, I have painted most of those 40 linear feet myself, and I am satisfied with the result. A backdrop that extends the foreground scenery has a profound effect on the visual impact of a model railroad.
This page documents my recent push to add another 15 feet of backdrop painting, which I documented with a lot of photos. However, before I could even start, I had to repair an unsightly failed joint in the hardboard sky backdrop. That’s where this story begins.
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I am not an artist by any means – I think I had my last “art class” in 7th grade. However, I have spent a lot of vacations hiking out west and observing nature – as well as taking lots of landscape photos and learning what types of trees grow at what elevations and under what conditions. I have been inspired by Greg Gray’s backdrops, seen on several layouts in the St Louis area; Greg is a true artist. I got my start thanks to John Scherr, a friend and fellow member of the Mudhens; John showed me the basic materials, tools, and techniques and then painted the first 7 feet of backdrop above my Cumbres Pass scene in about 2000. I painted the next 18 feet a few years later. This last 15 feet was painted in April and May of 2020.
The backdrop is 1/8” hardboard, curved around the corners in the finished room, with the joints filled with drywall mud. The sky was painted years ago, a latex blue interior house paint, with the lower half painted a lighter blue after mixing in white to lighten the sky near the horizon. I used some of John’s preferred tube acrylics from Liquitex and other suppliers, especially greens (Viridian Hue, Sap Green, Opaque oxide of chromium), browns (Raw Sienna, Raw Umber), blue (Phthalo Blue), Mars Black and Titanium White. My main tools are #2, 4 and 6 flat brushes, #2 round brush, a plastic paint palette, palette knife and a jar of water for wetting the brush and blending colors already applied to the backdrop. I have learned by experimentation how to simulate some depth to the mountain scenes, but I do not know how to add shadows, so I don’t try. I have made many goofs, but the great thing is, you can paint over the mistakes and try again!