I have to say i couldn’t quite believe my eyes when I saw your final shots, looking at the road between those buildings looks so real I couldn’t quite grasp that it was a flat print !! The 3D effect is perfect - really top job 👍
I'm still amazed by how good your little visual trick for the side of the pub and the adjacent street works. You also have taken my idea of a residential area with your buildings on your backscene at the right of it ! It's a really nice addition, especially with their step-like disposition along of an invisible climbing street. Very clever trick to animate the landscape, I note it for my own purpose !
Julian, your attention to detail is astonishing, and what a vision you have, that town scene is one of the very best I've ever seen. I've followed your progress on Station Road now for a few years, and to watch your skills develop has been hugely impressive. I follow a chap here in the UK called Tony north eastern, and like you his work is astonishing, I've commented to him that these layouts are works of art, and modeling to a extraordinary level. And in some ways it's a shame that so few of us get to see these products of dedication. It's a privilege to be part of your journey thank you for sharing your story. Ive got a tiny layout which I've been building for my grandchildren it's not got a permanent home it has to be put away at times of visiting children and relatives. But we can dream through you and Tony and indeed others. Look after yourself over on the other side of the world. See you on the next one Eddy xx
Thank you Eddy for your wonder feedback, as always, I greatly appreciated it. I thoroughly enjoy watching Tony's channel also, it's his attention to detail and methodical approach to model making... story telling in miniature.
Hi Julian - The back scene is amazing, I just love the way it tricks the eye into thinking there is more depth, very clever. I want more lol. Regards Chris
Magnificent result on the backscene. I know what you mean about the colour of the pavement but also know you will find a solution. Thanks for sharing. Roy.
Well this turned out being most excellent! There are hardware tools available that enable you to ensure that your screen is properly calibrated for colour, and then you can embed that colour profile in your images, meaning either your own printer, or a third party printer can reproduce the colours exactly as seen on your screen! However, it's a real pain to setup, and most of us just stick with the basic sRGB colour profile setting, and trust that our monitors are showing the colours correctly, which, of course, they never are! It's still a great end result though! All the best, Ian.
Thanks Ian. As a graphic designer I do have my monitors and printers calibrated but it's a different story when you take your file to a print centre, where the results can vary even at the same printer centre on different days and who's processing your job.
I'll echo all the praise comments for your work. Absolutely stellar, your use of a photo editing truly adds depth, pun intended to your model railroad. As a Linux user I've been using Gimp for quite sometime, which many suggest is as good as Photoshop but is free. ( it also runs on Windows 10 & 11) it also has a steep learning curve, much like Photoshop. Until your discussion on the perspective and how to "distort" an image object I'd never had a use for such a technique. After your video I checked out Gimp and sure enough it also supports several distortion tools. I'm not suggesting that you or anyone rush out an get Gimp. However it is an alternative to working online. Thanks for showing me a new technique!
Many thanks David. I have used Gimp many moons ago and it's absolutely a suitable alternative to Photoshop or online offerings. I didn't include Gimp as an option in the video simply because I didn't want to get into software installation.
Ahh the fun of different papers and types of printer… knew there was something I wasn’t missing about working! Great result and looking forward to when you do the road surfaces as that is one of my next jobs!
Looking absolutely beautiful, dear Julian. Absolutely agree on the patch ups and the off color cause of the pro print. Although, the printer may be just when he or she says the color of your home print version may be off, off the rgb or ral setting. Nevertheless, the whole backdrop looks stunning. Apart from patching up, just lately saw a vid of another YT-er who adjusted the color of his road, by painting the first 1,5” or 3,75cm of the road to the color of 3D road. He painted into a fade towards the color of the print. This looked very good. Unfortunately, can’t remember what his name is. If I get to it, I’ll look it up in my history folder. Can imagine that would also work for the pavement. Especially because when we look into the yonder, colors do change. Another one, is to weather both the pedestrian pavement and the road in situ. Don’t know if that will work with the print, but it might be worth a try with your A4 tryouts. Same counts for the wall. Last but not least, considering you still got some leeway behind the backdrop, humbly think it would also have been interesting when you had put the different items on several boards, allowing the edges form the illusion of depth like in a theater or a viewing box. Must say I don’t see such coulisses that often; and as the backdrop now is, it looks great. This remark also as a challenge to myself. It’s just an idea I’ve been thinking about for a long time. Especially, when I once saw a diorama, with a hill setup, just like that. Just before the backdrop the hill just slightly dropped down. In the space between the backdrop and the ‘shadow’ space of the hill, the maker had put a tiny piece of hilltop covered in ultra fine ground cover and tree tips. Behind that piece came the painted backdrop. It was an absolute joy to to watch just for the illusion of depth it created. Since then I’m playing with this idea to create beyond the ‘physical’ horizon.
Thank you Vincent for your wonder feedback and apologies for the somewhat belated response. You've shared some great thoughts/ideas here and in particular, the blending of the roads/pavements between the layout and backscene. This has been on my mind and how to eliminated the hard edge between the two. It's definitely a case of working in a graduated merge of some sort as you've mentioned and my thoughts are to establish a colour match with the street tarmac (once the layout street surface is complete) and manipulate some additional backscene patches on the computer to print out and apply to the backscene.
I have to say i couldn’t quite believe my eyes when I saw your final shots, looking at the road between those buildings looks so real I couldn’t quite grasp that it was a flat print !! The 3D effect is perfect - really top job 👍
I'm still amazed by how good your little visual trick for the side of the pub and the adjacent street works.
You also have taken my idea of a residential area with your buildings on your backscene at the right of it ! It's a really nice addition, especially with their step-like disposition along of an invisible climbing street. Very clever trick to animate the landscape, I note it for my own purpose !
Julian, your attention to detail is astonishing, and what a vision you have, that town scene is one of the very best I've ever seen. I've followed your progress on Station Road now for a few years, and to watch your skills develop has been hugely impressive. I follow a chap here in the UK called Tony north eastern, and like you his work is astonishing, I've commented to him that these layouts are works of art, and modeling to a extraordinary level. And in some ways it's a shame that so few of us get to see these products of dedication. It's a privilege to be part of your journey thank you for sharing your story. Ive got a tiny layout which I've been building for my grandchildren it's not got a permanent home it has to be put away at times of visiting children and relatives. But we can dream through you and Tony and indeed others. Look after yourself over on the other side of the world. See you on the next one Eddy xx
Thank you Eddy for your wonder feedback, as always, I greatly appreciated it. I thoroughly enjoy watching Tony's channel also, it's his attention to detail and methodical approach to model making... story telling in miniature.
13:23 The corner opposite the station building just hurts my head - in a good way!
Superb job done Julian. You and Tony North Eastern could take on the world in scratch building...lol..
Hi Julian - The back scene is amazing, I just love the way it tricks the eye into thinking there is more depth, very clever. I want more lol.
Regards Chris
Looks awesome Julian well done mate 👍🏻
Magnificent result on the backscene. I know what you mean about the colour of the pavement but also know you will find a solution. Thanks for sharing. Roy.
That's looking great. Very deceiving in a nice way. 👍
Awesome video Julian!!! Well done! Cheers Onno.
Fantastic results Julian 👍💯👍
Adding the overlays did make it look a lot better. I am interested in how you are going to do the road. Martin. (Thailand)
Well this turned out being most excellent! There are hardware tools available that enable you to ensure that your screen is properly calibrated for colour, and then you can embed that colour profile in your images, meaning either your own printer, or a third party printer can reproduce the colours exactly as seen on your screen! However, it's a real pain to setup, and most of us just stick with the basic sRGB colour profile setting, and trust that our monitors are showing the colours correctly, which, of course, they never are! It's still a great end result though! All the best, Ian.
Thanks Ian. As a graphic designer I do have my monitors and printers calibrated but it's a different story when you take your file to a print centre, where the results can vary even at the same printer centre on different days and who's processing your job.
Very impressive results - now just got to try and do it myself 😮😉
Looks superb.
I'll echo all the praise comments for your work. Absolutely stellar, your use of a photo editing truly adds depth, pun intended to your model railroad. As a Linux user I've been using Gimp for quite sometime, which many suggest is as good as Photoshop but is free. ( it also runs on Windows 10 & 11) it also has a steep learning curve, much like Photoshop. Until your discussion on the perspective and how to "distort" an image object I'd never had a use for such a technique. After your video I checked out Gimp and sure enough it also supports several distortion tools. I'm not suggesting that you or anyone rush out an get Gimp. However it is an alternative to working online. Thanks for showing me a new technique!
Many thanks David. I have used Gimp many moons ago and it's absolutely a suitable alternative to Photoshop or online offerings. I didn't include Gimp as an option in the video simply because I didn't want to get into software installation.
Ahh the fun of different papers and types of printer… knew there was something I wasn’t missing about working! Great result and looking forward to when you do the road surfaces as that is one of my next jobs!
Nice derail.
It is all coming together and matching in well.
Great job.
Monique from Brisbane
Great video. I remember doing mechanical perspective in tech drawing in the early 70’s. I might finally have use for those lessons yet.
Looking absolutely beautiful, dear Julian. Absolutely agree on the patch ups and the off color cause of the pro print. Although, the printer may be just when he or she says the color of your home print version may be off, off the rgb or ral setting. Nevertheless, the whole backdrop looks stunning.
Apart from patching up, just lately saw a vid of another YT-er who adjusted the color of his road, by painting the first 1,5” or 3,75cm of the road to the color of 3D road. He painted into a fade towards the color of the print. This looked very good. Unfortunately, can’t remember what his name is. If I get to it, I’ll look it up in my history folder.
Can imagine that would also work for the pavement. Especially because when we look into the yonder, colors do change.
Another one, is to weather both the pedestrian pavement and the road in situ. Don’t know if that will work with the print, but it might be worth a try with your A4 tryouts. Same counts for the wall.
Last but not least, considering you still got some leeway behind the backdrop, humbly think it would also have been interesting when you had put the different items on several boards, allowing the edges form the illusion of depth like in a theater or a viewing box. Must say I don’t see such coulisses that often; and as the backdrop now is, it looks great. This remark also as a challenge to myself. It’s just an idea I’ve been thinking about for a long time. Especially, when I once saw a diorama, with a hill setup, just like that. Just before the backdrop the hill just slightly dropped down. In the space between the backdrop and the ‘shadow’ space of the hill, the maker had put a tiny piece of hilltop covered in ultra fine ground cover and tree tips. Behind that piece came the painted backdrop.
It was an absolute joy to to watch just for the illusion of depth it created. Since then I’m playing with this idea to create beyond the ‘physical’ horizon.
Thank you Vincent for your wonder feedback and apologies for the somewhat belated response. You've shared some great thoughts/ideas here and in particular, the blending of the roads/pavements between the layout and backscene. This has been on my mind and how to eliminated the hard edge between the two. It's definitely a case of working in a graduated merge of some sort as you've mentioned and my thoughts are to establish a colour match with the street tarmac (once the layout street surface is complete) and manipulate some additional backscene patches on the computer to print out and apply to the backscene.
Good video thanks lee