{"id":169,"date":"2001-03-30T10:21:31","date_gmt":"2001-03-30T09:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stationstudios.ca\/trains\/?p=169"},"modified":"2014-11-22T10:19:09","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T09:19:09","slug":"dock-module-backdrops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stationstudios.ca\/trains\/dock-module-backdrops\/","title":{"rendered":"Dock Module: Backdrops"},"content":{"rendered":"

After reading a lot of differing opinions on backdrop materials, I decided to try 0.060″ sheet styrene. The best reference on sheet styrene backdrops is Marty McGuirk’s Back to Basics column in the April 2000 Model Railroader.<\/p>\n

I had some difficulty locating a company that would cut a 4’x8′ sheet of styrene into 3 16″x8′ sheets. I finally found Commercial Plastics here in Calgary who did the cuts for no additional charge.<\/p>\n

I decided on 12″ radius corners at each of the three corners of the module. In order to line things up easily, I marked the wooden module structure at key places. I then calculated the linear distance of backdrop need to match up with this point (using the rule that the circumference of a circle = 2*pi*radius; therefore the length of a 90 degree curve is pi*radius\/2). Then I just put the styrene in place, matching up the marks as I went.<\/p>\n

I used latex contact cement to glue the styrene to the wooden module structure which worked very well. Because a single 8′ section was not long enough to fit the module, I spliced two sheets together with an 8″ splice plate between them. I used styrene putty to fill the small gaps at the splice. Here’s a photo of the backdrop while the cement was drying:<\/p>\n

\"Installing<\/a><\/p>\n

At the left side exit of the module, I built a little flap of styrene to cover a very unattractive view of the benchwork which can be seen here:<\/p>\n

\"Backdrop\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One thing I would do different on the next module is to give the styrene a light sanding with a fine grit sandpaper before installing in the module. It is relatively easy to chip the paint on the unroughed sheet styrene. Touch wood; I have not scratched anything yet but the potential is there. Roughing up the surface would give the paint something to adhere to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After reading a lot of differing opinions on backdrop materials, I decided to try 0.060″ sheet styrene. The best reference on sheet styrene backdrops is Marty McGuirk’s Back to Basics column in the April 2000 Model Railroader. I had some difficulty locating a company that would cut a 4’x8′ sheet of styrene into 3 16″x8′ … Continue reading “Dock Module: Backdrops”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pmtco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stationstudios.ca\/trains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stationstudios.ca\/trains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stationstudios.ca\/trains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stationstudios.ca\/trains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stationstudios.ca\/trains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stationstudios.ca\/trains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stationstudios.ca\/trains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stationstudios.ca\/trains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stationstudios.ca\/trains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}