Back scene for the railway

The last missing essential for almost every exhibition layout is a back scene.  As with the rest of the layout I wanted to keep this simple and light. The disadvantage of course is the loss of robustness, however even the thinnest ply starts to get heavy quite quickly and you still need to protect the surface if it is painted or papered although permanently fixing them to the layout is one possible solution, however this can also the increase the width between the boards when they are bolted together.

I decided to use a plastic sheeting put under laminate flooring. This is a square section plastic corrugate like that used for estate agents 'For Sale' signs. I chose the thicker of the two thicknesses available, which was about 3mm and full size 2400mm sheet was relatively inexpensive at under a tenner. This was sufficient  to put a 30mm curtain around the front and sides with some to spare. 

The plastic is held against the edge of the layout with 6mm bolts but having set the layout up at a couple of shows these will be changes to 13mm bolts, the same as the rest of the layout. this is not for strength but simplicity, so whatever bolt you pick up it will be the right size.Strangely when I looked at a packet of ten washers in B&Q they were almost the same price as a packet of ten bolts with washers and nuts!?!

The ribbing does show slightly but the idea is to cover with card that can be painted with sky blue and clouds initially, then further detail can be added to complement the scenery once its in place. Velcro strips across the joins have also been employed to keep the panels together.