Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2023 February 16

= February 16 =

Model railway backdrop
I want to add a vertical backdrop to my model railway that should have curved instead of sharp corners ("because there are no corners in the sky", as railway modellers point out). It should be 50 cm high and 5 m long (or shorter with invisible joins), and be some material I can spray-paint. What could I make it from? I am imagining re-purposing some material that comes in a roll. Hayttom (talk) 21:43, 16 February 2023 (UTC)
 * What about some kind of wood veneer? -- Jayron 32 23:01, 16 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Thin sheet metal might be a possibility. --174.89.12.187 (talk) 23:06, 16 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Propping up a corrugated cardboard-backed cloth would be lightweight, foldable, inexpensive and are easily obtained. Where I live we can buy the fabric, shipping boxes, contact cement, paper (or box tape) for the cardboard joins and paints at Walmart. Modocc (talk) 00:02, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
 * An ambitious railway modeller might combine a digital Video projector with a Rear projection film made of Polyethylene Terephthalate that is moderately priced and can be cut to size, and thereby impress viewers with a full range of changing weather effects. Philvoids (talk) 00:48, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
 * I would recommend some high-grammage (say, 300 g/ sq m) cardboard that you could spray-paint and then perhaps varnish for protection? I suppose it would be difficult to buy a 5 m long cardboard sheet, but then again you could join it at the back with some strong adhesive tape; painted properly and done cleanly, such joints would be difficult to discern. And then prop it up as Modocc suggested, with some timber. --Ouro (blah blah) 03:15, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Seems in cardboard panels can be masked with paper tape. This is often how the joints in wallboard are masked before painting over.  -- Jayron 32 15:18, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Gigantic rolls of glossy cardboard, about four feet high, very heavy, and absurdly long when unrolled, do exist. They're used in industrial settings such as the manufacture of cereal boxes. However, unless you happen to have an sympathetic contact who works in such a factory, or in a paper mill, you're unlikely to be able to get hold of one. Card Zero  (talk) 21:35, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Matboard (used for framing artwork) is pretty cheap and readily available in sheets 40 inches x 32 inches (100 cm x 80 cm). It's available in a vast array of colors and surface textures, but you may just want to get white to make it easy to paint. CodeTalker (talk) 03:30, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Also see the articles on Canvas and Support (art). Modocc (talk) 05:06, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you all for the useful suggestions. (Though, er, the rear-projection idea won't work because my model railway is adjacent to the walls.) Hayttom (talk) 19:48, 22 February 2023 (UTC)