Painting Backdrops 101

[matrixone]

While waiting for parts to dry on my He 100H-1 and Bf 109G-10 I was in the mood to do some painting but had no models ready for paint so I decided to make another photobase backdrop and take pics of each step.

Step one, paint the ''sky'' on using a rattle can of Testors blue paint.


Step two, airbrush some lighter blue where the horizon will be, I used Testors RLM 65


Step three, airbrush the horizon. In this case I wanted a distant hillside with trees on it and used a green color with some gray added to it to give the illusion it was far away.


Step four, airbrush a closer treeline. I used a pure green color for this.


Step five, airbrush the ground level stuff. I used various shades of browns and greens to give the illusion of depth and distance.


Step six, add some happy little clouds to the sky, AND ITS DONE!


Here is a closer look of the finished backdrop, lack of enough light late this afternoon kept me from trying the backdrop with my photobase.


Matrixone

[Ed S]

looks good.  That ought to make a great backdrop for model photos.

Ed

[sotoolslinger]

  Talent.

[NARSES2]

Talent.

As the man says 

[Captain Canada]

Nice one, Matrix ! Thanks for the ips...I've been meaning to try one, and now know where to start !

[Amphion]

Bom-Bara-Bing.....and you'r done

Yeah, right!! 

[matrixone]

Thanks guys,

I hope you give it a try, it does not take that long to paint one of these things, I painted this one yesterday afternoon. Just make sure the foamboard is a large enough size because to get the best results from using one of these backdrops you should place it at least two feet behind the model when taking the pictures and too small a backdrop will show the edges of it in your pictures.

Now lets see some new backdrops to go with all these new models!

Next year I want to try another backdrop with more detail....instead of just scenery I want to try and paint some hangers in the background too. This one will not be an afternoon quickie, this one will take about two days worth of work.

If the weather clears today I will try and get some pics of the new backdrop with the photobase and a model to see if it works out well or not.


Matrixone

[B777LR]

I think Matrixone is somehow related to JHM. You know, with that skill, he must be from the 10th or 11th planet

Thanks for showing how!

[John Howling Mouse]

Excellent timing: I ordered several different ready-made (railroad diorama) backdrops last week!  

Matrixone does show you how simple the process can be but if you guys don't think you can pull it off, the world's largest collection of photographic backgrounds for sale is located here:  http://allscalebackdrops.com/indexasbd.htm  (only problem I found with their site is there is simply too much to choose from.  These guys should start making backdrops suitable for the growing scale airport modeling hobby.

They have very large/hi-def versions (expensive) as well as lower-rez, custom-sized versions (less expensive) for the rest of us.

But I do plan to paint some sort of background similar to what Matrixone has shown but with some distant red/white checkered field sheds and maybe some hangars in the background.

Here was my first painted backdrop:





And, as you may have seen posed behind a model:



For mine, I started with a suitable sky-blue matte (from a picture frame store) and simply sprayed white primer from a can to show the gradient lighter tints toward the horizon.  Spray close at the bottom, back and forth, lifting the nozzle away from the matte board as you gradually tilt higher and higher toward the top edge of the matte.  Then I airbrushed a blurry ground base, a blurry tree-line et voila!

Nothing beats taking your nicely crafted tarmac base, putting it on a stand (or a car, etc.) with a suitable live background (like an airport if you're allowed to take pics near yours).  Here's a superb example by Leigh (where is he, these days, anyhow?):

[Brian da Basher]

Matrixone, Mr Howling Mouse, you guys are true artistes! Very impressive work on those backdrops.

Me, I flunked out of the Bob Ross school of landscape painting.

Brian da Basher

[John Howling Mouse]

Matrixone, Mr Howling Mouse, you guys are true artistes! Very impressive work on those backdrops.

Me, I flunked out of the Bob Ross school of landscape painting.

Brian da Basher

Heh, heh!  You kept that Photo-Edit of mine all this time?!  Cracking!

[matrixone]

Thanks once again for the kind words!

Brian,
I used to watch Bob Ross when he had his TV show about scenery painting. Thats why I added ''happy little clouds'' to my backdrop, a tip of the hat to the master.

I also remember a little German guy that also had a TV show about painting....that guy was intense! Whatever happened to those people?

Matrixone

[Brian da Basher]

You mean "Magic Alex" er, "Paintings by Alexander"?

Unfortunately, Bob Ross passed away a few years back. I'm not sure what happened to Alexander but if he's still around, he's got to be pretty old by now as he was no youngster when he was on TV.

"Und vee use die palette knife like DAS!!!"

Brian da Basher

[cthulhu77]

[matrixone]