The Empire

[Zephyrus52246]

It was time to start the section with the bluff.  I knew this would be more difficult and it really was.  The first piece went up well, except I should have ordered it one foot wider.  The hill is a little short of the bluff.    We'll figure out a fix for that later.  

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

Joey was able to print "only sky" pieces which were 18 inches tall.  This made them easier to manage, but I needed to make a way to hold them so I could tape them in place, so I made this contraption.    

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

I thought I would tape the top and then just cut the lower edge to fit.  However, this didn't work at all, the backdrop kept falling off and having the lower edge hang over the cliff on the curve made this nearly impossible.  This got so frustrating, I quit for the day to figure out an attack plan.  I decided to try with lighter paper.   When shipped, There is white paper over the printed face of the roll.  I used this as a mask when spraying the adhesive near edges of already applied backdrops.  Here it came in handy to make a template.  

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

The template was attached to the backdrop and cut appropriately.

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

I knew this area would be difficult.  It's four feet deep and I have to stand on a small step ladder in a 14 1/2 by 16 1/2 in hole in the layout, that you see in the pictures above.  Somehow this seemed more difficult than a few years ago when I did the bluff scenery.  I don't think that it's cuz I'm getting older.     At least I didn't hit my head nor back going back and forth under the layout.  I hit my head plenty of times on the light supports to make up for it.  

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

Anyway, this piece was a pain to put in.  I decided to cut the 8 foot width in half for easier maneuvering of the piece.  I attached the first 18 inches and waited 30 minutes for it to dry and did the second.  You don't get a lot of time and chances  to remove the paper once it's in place.  I'd left a bit too much on the bottom in some areas which made it tough to get over the top of the bluff.  It ended up slightly crooked, but it was too risky to try to remove it.  

The next pieces I had to stand on the 3rd step of the ladder (in the hole) and lean over to fit the template and finally the backdrop.  The ladder shifted twice but I didn't fall, more a fall forward onto the layout.  But the other pieces did get placed.

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

I was pretty excited yesterday morning before putting the last two pieces on.  I thought everything looked pretty good.  BUT...

I noticed there were bubbles/ripples in the first piece placed in the alcove. 

[Zephyrus52246]

Looking over the rest of the backdrops there were other areas with the same issue.  I had looked at these every day without any issues.  What happened overnight to change this?  I have no idea.  Today, except for the alcove piece the other areas look a little less noticeable, but are still there.  I'll send an email to trackside scenery and ask if anyone else has had this issue and if he has any recommendations.  

My main concern now is will the damned things start falling off the walls over time?  I'm going to design/rough in the scenery in these areas, but will wait awhile to see what happens.

Jeff

[Zephyrus52246]

You'll also note that there are a couple of spots on top of the bluff where the backdrop is short, I'll fix that by using some of the scenic materials on those areas.  

At least the FSM kit wasn't damaged.  

Jeff

[deemery]

Dr Jeff, get a syringe, fill it with a bit of slightly thinned white glue, and inject that glue into the bubbles.  Then use a roller to distribute the glue...

The scenery backdrop panels I laminated to matboard are starting to peel off.  Not the backdrops from the matboard, but the matboard from the wall behind it.  I'm contemplating what to put there.  I think I'll have to bite the bullet and use a more aggressive adhesive, that will probably mess up the wallboard when it comes time to tear down the layout.  

dave