Background

The modules should have a decent background when built up in my train room. The background will be painted directly on the white walls of the room. But there are two problems needing a solution: a window and a door.

Preparation

I do not want that these two disrupt a continous background, so I have to cover them with some removable parts.

At first you can see the window as it is:

I built a cover with some plywood. It is not going to the top to allow some air circulation when the window is partially opened or via the adjustable vent above the window:

This cover is held in place with some rubber parts on the rear side:

Painted white as the walls everything is ready for painting the background:

A similar construction was made for the entry door:

The backside of the background plywood is already painted to prevent headache:

Before starting with painting the background I had to cover everything below - so the usual thing with tape and plastic sheet and one layer of white to seal the tape:

Painting the sky

The next step was painting:

I used white and two different blues. The plastering made of gypsum is very dry and soaks up every humidity immediately. So I had to use some tricks to keep the colors wet because I wanted to work wet-on-wet to mix and blend the three colors directly on the wall. First I sprayed some water on the wall to dampen it. I worked on about one meter of the wall at a time, more wasn't possible because of the fast drying of the colors.

I worked from bottom to top, so I started with some white, using a wide brush. Immediately after applying it I sprayed more water on the color to keep it wet. Above the white I applied a light blue, also immediately spraying water on it and then I started to blend it with the white. Next step was a darker blue and as a last step some white on the top. And all the time - spraying, spraying, spraying to keep everything wet and to be able to blend the colors. Then moving to the next part of the wall...

The next picture shows how nice the window cover hides the window:

The humidity in the train room climbed to over 70%, so I had to wait and let dry everything. A dehumidifier was very helpful!

Clouds

I wanted to have some clouds, so I tried my very best with white and a little bit of a dark blue:

I used a small and stiff brush and worked slowly, stepping back often to check the result. That's it with the clouds for the moment; if some day I think I should have more clouds this will be no problem.

Result

After finishing the background so far I could work on the wall mounts and finally place the first modules:

I'm happy with it - and further improvements for the background, some distant hills, will follow later.

Addition

A quite important addition:

I added some foam (made for insulating pipes of a central heater) to minimize pain when not ducking enough under the duck under entrance. Guess why I know ... :-)