Backdrop Blues

I'd like to thank the person who decided we should be able to buy smaller 7oz. paint cups to test our eyes on a larger section of wall than those massively unreliable paint swatches.  If I were forced to decide on a color based on the sample card, I surely would have been disappointed once I put it on the wall.  On something as visible and "in-your-face" as a backdrop, I feel it is one of the most important elements of layout design to select a color that is minimally offensive.  Color preference can be a subjective thing, but I think that if you keep the shade comfortably within the margins of subtlety you should be safe.  With that in mind, I plucked about 46 swatches off the wall at Menards to take home to begin my selection process.  Spending maybe an hour one evening, I whittled the pile down into six colors that I thought would be decent for my backdrop.  For about $3 each, I was able to bring home five of the colors I'd selected (one she couldn't mix properly because the ratio of tint to base was so small that one drop would have been too much). 

Dutch Boy paint samples from Menards.  At a little over 7oz. these provide

a great (and affordable) way to test backdrop colors on a good sized section of wall.

 I separated the wall into five sections about 16" wide on which to place the colors side by side, separated by a 3/4" masking tape line, then I started to apply the colors.  It's amazing to me that when I chose the colors, I thought all of them would be really close contenders.  It became obvious on at least two of them within 10 seconds of rolling on the color that they would not be my selection.  

Several colors applied to the wall.

 

After all the colors had dried I was able to step back and consider how I felt about them.  I posed some structures and cars in front of them... moved them around... moved them again.  I wasn't in a hurry either, so I tried to just spend a few minutes standing in front of them every day when I happened to be in the basement.  

 

 I quickly narrowed my options to the two colors above the salmon-colored Potash 

covered hopper.  The photo probably doesn't really show the true color here, but

it's pretty close.

 In the midst of this I also started engineering a valance and then also invited a few local modeler friends over to seek their opinions on the valance and the colors.  They agreed that the three colors to the right were all flawed in one way or another.  Too purple, too green, too blue...

 

For those interested in the technical details the colors (all Dutch Boy Platinum Eggshell) 

from left to right are:

136-2DB - Erie Skies

137-1DB - Arielle

237-2DB - Fresh Air

134-2DB - Vandy Blue

137-2DB - Blue Crab Claw

 

As a group we were split down the middle on the left two colors.  My personal preference is the far left "Erie Skies" color.  When I stand in front of the second from the left "Arielle" it almost looks like there is no color, especially if i were to lose the white stripes and other colors for reference.  I feel like it may appear as if the wall weren't painted at all... which I suppose could be desirable in some respects.  But as I sit here typing this and look out the window, the sky appears a deeper shade of blue than any of the colors on the wall.  Still I think the subtle approach is best and I will arrive at a decision on one or the other color soon.

 

So, the moral of the story is this:  If you are in the same position of trying to pick a color, do NOT pick one in the store looking at one square inch of sample card.  If I had done that, I likely would have picked one of the colors to the right, which when applied full size on the wall pretty much looked like Hell... Blue Hell.  It doesn't have to be full-on analysis paralysis, but take the time to pick a few and spend the ten bucks on samples first just to be sure.  I would also urge you to err on the lighter side, as these (or most, really) colors appear substantially darker when applied to a larger area.

 

 

Lighting Considerations

For the last couple months I've been busy painting the walls in the workroom as well as finishing up some other projects around the house.  Last week I finally had a chance to start thinking about what color "sky" I'd like to apply to the layout room, which I will discuss in another post soon.  Recently, I was also able to make a decision about how I'd like to light the layout, which I felt was an important step before trying to choose a backdrop color.  In short, basic 4' double-bulb fluorescent shop lights spaced a foot or less apart will light the layout.  I plant to set them roughly 4-5 inches out from the fascia to allow adequate side-on light to the layout itself.  Most of my track will be set back 6 or more inches from the edge of the benchwork, and there will be roughly 27" of vertical separation between the bulbs and the layout surface.  I want to avoid the top-down effect of having lights directly over the benchwork.  My layout will represent mid-October where sunlight in north-central Indiana is fairly low-angle all day long. A rigid valance dropping down 10-12" from the ceiling will shield the majority of the light from the viewer, creating the "shadow-box" sort of effect that I prefer.  I was able to mock-up this plan with an 8' module placed on some shelf brackets in the workroom where my staging yard will be located.

Mock-up of layout at appropriate height with basic valance.  This allowed me to test various

Lighting techniques as well as specific bulbs to determine what looked "right" to my eye.

 Once I set up the module and a basic valance I was able to check some different lighting options.  I have read a lot about LED lighting and believe that it is probably the best option for the future, however right now the cost is still a downside for me.  My best option for being able to move forward without breaking the bank was going to be either fluorescent tubes or CFL bulbs spaced closely.  So I acquired the materials to test both options.  I pulled enough 12-2 wire from my panel to the layout room to power a small town, so some quick math confirmed that I wouldn't exceed code limits of electrical load on my lighting.  This was an important consideration from step one when I was pulling wire a year ago before drywall.  30 to 40 fixtures is a whole lot of amperage, so I feel it pays to provide a little bit of over-kill in the planning and construction phase.  Below is my very biased, non-scientific testing and decision-making process:

Test one consisted of two basic 4' shop light fixtures using T8 bulbs.  I placed the fixtures basically end-to-end behind the valance set as far forward as possible.  I bought three types of Phillips 32W T8 bulbs from Home Depot:

Daylight Deluxe: 2,850 Lumens - CRI 75 - Color Temp 6500K

Natural Light: 2,850 Lumens - CRI 82 - Color Temp 5000K

Neutral: 2,875 Lumens - CRI 84 - Color Temp 3500K

To start with, I placed both bulbs into the fixtures to get an idea of their overall appearance.  I very quickly decided that the Daylight Deluxe was far too blue, the Natural Light was pretty good (but "flat" sort of gray-ish) and that the Neutral was great at bringing out the warm colors (red, orange, yellow) but cast an overall orange-ish hue (which was expected).  

Natural Light bulbs on the left, Daylight Deluxe on the right.  Note the very obvious

blue light cast by the Daylight Deluxe... yeeek.

 

Natural Light bulbs on the left, Neutral bulbs on the right.  The yellows of the CNW GP40

and the ex-Chessie covered hopper stand out much better, even the Tuscan of the Conrail covered hopper

seems to look better, bringing out the slight red tint. The orange tint is very obvious against the 

wall though, and seems to kill the blue and green colors. 

 

 

I felt like the Daylight Deluxe option was off the table.  The blue was too extreme for my taste.  I wondered if combing the Natural Light and Neutral bulbs in the fixtures (one of each per fixture) would produce a "best of both worlds" result... so I tried it out.

Combining the Natural Light and Neutral bulbs actually gave me the effect that was most pleasing 

to my eye.

I was pleased that it seemed to have the desired effect of bringing out all the colors, while backing off the familiar orange cast of the "warmer" bulb.  At this point I was pretty sure I would end up using this method.  I still had to try out the CFL option, though so I built up a test set-up on the back of the test valance, and took down the fluorescent fixtures.

I placed a ceiling box on the framework of the valance, a cheap plastic socket and wired between the sockets, spacing them about 16" apart. 

 

CFL bulbs placed behind the valance.

I used Utilitech 18W (75W equivalent) bulbs from Lowe's.  These advertise 5000K Daylight color with 1200 Lumens.  

Lighting provided by the four CFL bulbs.

 

Overall, the light provided by the CFL option wasn't too bad, but the intensity was lacking.  I thought that stepping up to the 100W equivalent bulbs I had might help this, and it may have but I ran into another problem.  I didn't take photos to show it, but the major issue with the 100W eq's wasn't so much the light, but the aesthetics.  The 100W eq's are so long, that when combined with the depth of the box and socket along with the deeper base of the bulb, the lit portion of the bulb was already over the edge of the benchwork, producing a strong top-lit effect that I was trying to avoid.  It was a little bit evident on the 75W eq's as well.  Turning the bulbs vertical may have alleviated this, but then the bottom of the bulb was close to protruding from the bottom of the valance, which wasn't gonna work either.  At this point I scrapped the CFL option.  Difficulty of wiring a hundred-some-odd of these sockets around the room was also a factor.  I had initially thought that it may be a slightly cheaper option than the T8 fixtures, but this turned out to be false as well.  Not by a huge margin, so the basis of my decision could be made solely on what I thought looked best.  Subsequently I settled on the combined T8 bulb method. 

With the lighting question answered, I could turn my attention to the backdrop and valance.