Apologies if this has been covered before. I made a mistake when I used thick card as the backing for Gaugemaster backscenes. I did that because I wanted to curve it. The curves worked but it now waves around like a medium sized surf. Sydney weather ranges over the year from about 5 to 42 degrees, drought sometimes, high humidity at others. What do you all recommend instead, now that I will start again? Masonite? Thinnish ply? MDF? Some kind of plastic? I’d like to make it easy to glue the backscenes to, without bubbles ahem. I’ll reuse the card, it’s a small city’s worth of Scalescenes buildings. I’m now willing to forfeit the curves. It n longer seems to be a priority. Thanks. Bruce
Thanks Sol. That’s about the thickness I’m after. I take it that you paint it before gluing on the back scene? If I glue it first, will it still bend properly? I’d like to glue it flat on the floor, then install it. Once bitten (badly) you see... Bruce
G`day Bruce, Sol is correct.......MDF will bend nicely for you, however, depending on the radius of the curve your trying to achieve, thin ply may give a more robust result. If the radius is too tight......the ply won`t bend sufficiently so you are back to MDF. The advantage of ply is the cross laminations which give it more stability in adverse conditions. I have used MDF on the fascias on GCJ and it is curved in places. The railway is in a garage subject to the conditions you have mentioned and there has been no noticeable change in the MDF. Summing up.......I would prefer ply for longevity but you will find MDF easier to work with and should remain stable provided you seal it. Gormo
Over here we have a bendy ply in 3, 5, 8 and 16mm thicknesses. I imagine it may be available in Oz. Cheer's, Pete.
I doubt that it would bend too well without problems if glued flat but yes paint it before glueing so the glue will not cause any possible problems especially if using unsealed ply - MDF surface is usually more sealed than ply.
Thanks Pete, Sol, Gormo. I wish I’d asked for advice before I used card. Sounds like a trip to Mitre 10 is in order. Our local Bunnings wood section staff are less helpful.
Mitre 10 sold me what you recommended. Here is the destruction and the beginning of the rebuilding. I tried to paste a Gaugemaster backscene that I had, but as you suggested Sol, it didn't work. Instant bubbles. My wife has offered to paint a sky with clouds, which is all I need. The blue here is just some paint we had left over from our balcony railings. It's a long way from the correct colour. I just used it to seal the MDF.
And here is a temporary fit of the new MDF version. It bends just as you suggested Gormo, thanks. I've made a little video of the old backscene using the camera Toto sent me.
Thanks guys. I am about to embark on some serious back scenes for my Dargan layout and appreciate all of your experiences. I had already installed some thin ply without anything other than sky blue painting and really just to see how it fared in our Sydney weather of extremes before actually getting around to installing the artwork.Seems to be standing up very well although it does not (and never will) have to contend with curved surfaces. I plan to use a spray on glue as that seems to be the preferred treatment as its lack of moisture will avoid impacting on the back scene material but am open to any other suggestions. Cheers and happy modelling Richard
Richard, I tried spray glue on my first failed attempt. But there were multiple reasons for failure, including using flimsy card as the backing, and the curve which guaranteed bunching and bubbling. Yesterday I used Deluxe Materials View Glue Back Scene Adhesive. When I followed the instructions exactly, it seemed to work well on 3mm MDF which I prepainted. But the curve didn’t work of course.