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Backdrop - Maryland Junction Terminal Area
Here are photos of the construction of the benchwork for the yard portion
of the layout. The most recent set of photos is at the top. To view
in order of completion, read from the bottom up.
If you're a model railroader, or just like the information on this site, be sure
to drop me a note in my guestbook.
January 5, 2005
Three coats of primer and two coats of blue sky paint (a little too light, but
too late now!) and we're starting over. My first attempt at painting mountains
and clouds was not very rewarding. This time, I left it to someone who knows
what they're doing...
An artistic spouse is a wonderful thing for a model railroader to have. Melissa
did a great job on the new backdrop. I mainly held the paint tray, took
photos, and played supervisor. Below are some shots of the new backdrop.
The area to the right will be covered in 2" thick foam carved to a mountain
shape and covered with trees and foliage (likely something like puffball
trees).
Just a note: the greens in the photos below look a bit rich on
the computer screen due to the camera's response to the large amount of light
in the room and the very light colored sky. In person, however, they look just
right.
It's one heck of an improvement over what I did !
 First Coat of Primer It took three coats of Kilz to cover my old mountains. Maryland Junction Terminal Area - roundhouse end. Pete Brown, December 30, 2004. |
 Melissa Painting Clouds Maryland Junction Terminal Area. She wanted dramatic clouds like on the test strip, but I insisted on boring! Pete Brown, January 5, 2005. |
 A Closer Look at the Clouds These look perfect. Maryland Junction Terminal Area. Pete Brown, January 5, 2005. |
 Far Left Distant Mountain I am particularly pleased with how well the distant mountains came out. Maryland Junction Terminal Area. Pete Brown, January 5, 2005. |
 Center Distant Mountain Maryland Junction Terminal Area. Pete Brown, January 5, 2005. |
 Highlight and Shadow Melissa agonized over this large mountain. In the end, it came out really well. Maryland Junction Terminal Area. Pete Brown, January 5, 2005. |
 Finished Mountains Maryland Junction Terminal Area. Pete Brown, January 5, 2005. |
 Water Tower on Left Mountain Maryland Junction Terminal Area. Pete Brown, January 5, 2005. |
 Center of Backdrop Maryland Junction Terminal Area. The open area to the right will be foam and foliage. Pete Brown, January 5, 2005. |
Here's the 2005 terminal area plan. The staging is in a lighter color, and the
rest of the layout has been cleared out to isolate just this section in the
capture below. I cleared up area in the plan to the left to allow for a 3d
backdrop foam mountain with trees.
The shay shed and blue tracks are on top of the mountain. The tunnels are not
prototypical, but solve some continuity problems.
May 31, 2004
I have decided, with much advice from friends and my wife, to practice a bit
more on this backdrop and then prime back over it. While I think it was a
good first try, I was not happy with the imbalance between the really "hot"
greens on the mountains, and the really light hazy blue of the sky. I also
didn't like the blobbiness of the painted trees or the style of the
obviously-airbrushed clouds.
I'm actually looking forward to trying some of the techniques that I've been
reading about, and that my wife showed me (such as having two colors on the
brush at once to do highlight and shadow on the trees).
Pictures, of course, will be forthcoming :-)
May 29, 2004 - Mountains Continued
Mountain Trees
 Backdrop Mountain Trees Maryland Junction Terminal Area - roundhouse end. Pete Brown, May 29, 2004. Backdrop Mountain Trees Maryland Junction Terminal Area - west side and north end. Pete Brown, May 29, 2004.I used several different colors for the trees. I made the foreground colors
first by mixing green and brown acrylic paints into resealable disposable bowls
filled with my base green latex from Home Depot. You can go through a fair
amount of acrylic this way, so try not to get the overly expensive stuff. The
resealable bowls, BTW, are generic versions of those new Glad bowls. They are
great for keeping the paint from drying out for a couple days or weeks.
Once I got the foreground colors done, I then separated those out into
additional bowls and mixed in a good chunk of the sky color. The addition of
the sky color gives the background mountains a more distant feel. In
retrospect, I would have mixed in even more of the sky color as the mountains
do not look as hazy as the sky color would make you think they should look.
I still need to add some more colors to the foreground, some trees to the
north-end mountains (to the right in these photos), and then do some
highlighting to bring out individual trees instead of leaving it as one massive
green blob <g>.
Click on any of the images to see a larger version.
Clouds
 Backdrop Clouds Maryland Junction Terminal Area - roundhouse end. Pete Brown, May 29, 2004. Backdrop Clouds Maryland Junction Terminal Area - west side and north end. Pete Brown, May 29, 2004.
Let's just get this straight up-front: painting realistic clouds is much harder
than it looks!
For the clouds below I used my airbrush and some white and gray mixes. The white
is reasonable enough, but the gray is far too dark. You really only need a
touch of gray mixed with white, as opposed to my touch of white mixed with
gray. I will likely go back over it with some more white later on. I might
even try the brush-painting technique described in the
Backdrop to Tabletop book.
Click on any of the images to see a larger version.
May 22, 2004 - Mountains Started
Mountains
 Backdrop Mountains Maryland Junction Terminal Area - west at roundhouse end. Pete Brown, May 22, 2004. Backdrop Mountains Maryland Junction Terminal Area - west side and north end. Pete Brown, May 22, 2004.First I started by painting the mountain backgrounds using various colors mixed
with the backdrop color. These mountains (hills, really) are actually pretty
close to the terminal, but I still should have mixed in more background color
to make them as hazy as the sky color would call for. Visibility in the
mid-atlantic region in the late summer (the season I am modeling) is
usually not all that great.
For an incredible example of what this should look like, check
out the book
Scenery for your Model Railroad : From Backdrop to Tabletop. There is a
great backdrop in there for an n-scale Pennsylvania-themed layout. The artwork
is amazing, and is everything a backdrop should be, IMHO.
Click on any of the images to see a larger version.
Prototype Photos
 Real Mountains Maryland Junction Terminal looking north from the diesel engine house Pete Brown, May 1, 2004. Real Mountains Maryland Junction Terminal looking north from behind the roundhouse Pete Brown, May 1, 2004.
Nothing beats an on-site visit to the area you are modeling. On May 1, 2004 I
was able to do just that. In addition to the photos here, I have several more
in my Western Maryland Railway
prototoype photo section.
Here are some shots of Maryland Junction as it existed on May 1, 2004. I realize
that my hills/mountains are a bit too tall on my version, but this shows
the "in the valley" flavor I'm trying to capture here. The trees aren't fully
out yet as spring came late to the mountains this year.
 Real Mountains Maryland Junction Terminal looking west towards the Potomac. The river is just on the other side of the narrow stand of trees. Pete Brown, May 1, 2004. Real Mountains High shot of Knobmount yard south of the terminal. The terminal is north and around the bend to the right. Pete Brown, May 1, 2004.It wasn't until I visited the site that I realized leaving the Potomac river out
of my engine terminal was not going to be a problem. The Potomac, at least now,
is behind the trees in the west-side photo. I will imply it is behind the tree
line at the wall-edge of my layout as well.
I have some other really good photos of the area, one even taken from roughly
the same angle as the operator on my layout would use to look at the terminal,
but they are WMRHS property and so I will not display them here. If you wish to
see them, please see the article I wrote for the Western Maryland Railway
Historical Society Blue Mountain Express (BMX). It should be out in the Fall or
winter of 2004
Sky Painted
 Backdrop Sky Backdrop painted sky blue. Pete Brown, May 22, 2004.The sky blue color I picked is very light. I thought this would make for a nice
hazy-looking eastern sky. In retrospect, I think I should have picked a
slightly more intense blue, as this one looks almost white and will make the
sky much hazier than the mountains I end up painting. Click on any of the
images to see a larger version.
April 24, 2004 - Backdrop Primed
On April 24 I primed the backdrop and adjacent wall areas with Kilz. Kilz does a
great job of hiding imperfections as well as providing a nice thick coat of
pure white upon which you can build your scenes. I still need to caulk the
corners with white latex caulk in order to hide the seams. You can barely make
out the WM logo on the black valence in this photo.
September 27, 2003 - Backdrop Started
You can see in this photo that the first part of the backdrop has been installed
and patched. The patching hasn't been sanded yet in this photo. The
cutout in the middle in front of the window will have a removable door for
access. The entire backdrop here is made of 1/4" masonite so that the
door will be sturdy enough to survive handling.
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