This week I’ve been scratching my head quite a bit. Shelfie2 is reaching the final assembly stage. I’ve decided to go ‘hands free’ operation and have spent a good bit of time getting Dingham couplings to work, which I’ll write about in the next couple of weeks.

Having got the coupling issue resolved that gives me further opportunities in the scenic display. If we don’t need the hand of god getting in the way, or me or the team blundering around in front of the train set, then I can potentially do more scenic stuff front of house. So I’m now getting the lighting rig together with a bit of a yippee moment earlier today. The display is view and operate from the front, and like Shelfie1 a wraparound backscene. I’ve changed to LED strip lighting of 4000k and you can see the first trials here.

One thing I need to hide is the shadows thrown on the backdrop by the foreground trees, this was tested and a single downlight batten will run almost full length at the rear, to try this I rigged up lining paper along the rear of the layout.

This gives a really good feeling on the final appearance for minimal cost. Albion Yard and Shelfie1 used a photo print backscene with an image kindly supplied by Chris Nevard Albion Yard Backscene . This time I’m looking at painting my own. Again Chris Nevard has provided interesting thoughts and ideas for the technique Fountain Colliery and initial testing has been promising. My happy moment today has been discovering a potential backscene material of 1mm thick sign printers foamboard. I’ve tried the 2mm thick version and flooded it with paint both acrylic and enamel, so far it’s taken it with no detriment. It’s not going to be cheap, but I’ll get (I hope), a rigid 10ft section that I can paint and form into the wrap round backscene I want. The backscene will be very simple, just faint hill outlines in the distance that can be seen through the layout trees.

This the test piece, Halfords acrylic sprays, primer white, grey, Matt black, and Ford Tuscan Beige for a bit of warmth, and to add some finescale hair shirt tweediness to it, (so essential).

It’s a simple but very effective backscene that doesn’t overpower the foreground, so that’s the next stage.

Another issue is shadow from the lights themselves and so far this appears minimal.

This shows the effect with the man cave lights on and just the rear downlighting rigged.

This is with downlighting only, when the front bar goes in it’ll be lower and forward of the scenic edge, giving full foreground light and filling the rear corners. The presentation again like Albion Yard and Shelfie1 will be enclosed letterbox style. Track height from floor is about 55 inches, with the Dinghams, I may just take it a little higher. So the next couple of weeks should see Shelfie2 complete, then I’ve got the next one to tick off the bucket list!

Still it’s Warley this weekend, I’m sure I won’t come back with any new ideas, lol as the kids say!