I finally finished the backdrops for the Urban Station scene, and reassembled them. This mostly took longer than I’d intended because I was distracted. But I also spent some time finishing writing up the process I used for making backdrop images from found photographs (I’d started this several weeks ago).

The finally assembly went rather quickly, once I got past the whole “wrong size” problem I noted a while back. I applied the glue (an acid-free water-based glue used for photo scrap-booking, called “Paper Mod Podge”), lay the print down and tugged it into place, rolled it flat with a rubber roller (the kind used with ink pads, called a Brayer), and let the glue dry. Although the image is a bit larger than I would have liked, it looks surprisingly good and long as there are buildings in front of it to hide the edge.

One problem with the glossy photo I didn’t anticipate is that it reflects the lights I’m using:



There isn’t really an easy fix for this, although I’m going to try repositioning the lights to minimize the problem.

Still, it came out looking better than I’d really expected it would. I still need to assemble the one for the Riverside Station and reassemble that part of the layout. But that should go quickly now that I’ve done this pair.



A couple of other views; it’s less convincing at a sharp angle.

Other website changes:
- Added some of these photos to the Stations photo album.
- Updated the Making Backdrops page and “Phase 2j” construction page to reflect the recent work.
- Wrote a page about couplers used on Japanese trains (this is still “in progress” and will be updated).
- Updated my Reservations page to reflect recent activity.
- Made some minor edits to the Tōkyō Area Freight Locomotives page (I recently ordered an EF65 and EF66, and found some additional details to note about them while doing research).

Note: the comments are still broken. This appears to be a recently-introduced bug, although it’s similar to problems that have been reported in the past for iWeb related to domain name issues or incorrect software combinations. However, neither of those causes appear to apply to my site. This looks like an Apple bug; hopefully one they’ll fix. Until then, if you want to reach me, email to the address on the Who Am I page will work.


Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 12:49 PM
Don
Comments appear to be working…crossing fingers.

This is looking really good! The first shot is startlingly convincing, glare issues aside. Even knowing the Tomix and Kato buildings by heart, it took me a few moments to mentally sort out the model buildings and the buildings in the photograph.

Friday, February 4, 2011 - 11:24 PM
KenS
Well so they are. Mysterious are the ways of Apple. I didn't change anything.

Tags: Backdrops