I just did a 20' background scene using several Duquesne Lithos Realistic Backgrounds. These background scenes are about 18"H by about 40" wide and they come in quite a few different scenes- many that link together. They are very competitively priced at about $9.95 each and they allow you to do a nice background economically.
I installed about six panels side by side but after they were up I noticed that the colors of the sky were all very different shades of blue. They looked very odd to me. This necessitated taking the scenes down, masking the mountains and painting all the sky areas with a pastel blue paint that I found at Walmart. The final touch was to put back the clouds with a shot of flat white spray paint. The end result looks super but the message here is that if you want to use Realistic background scenes, carefully match the sky color before buying them. I've seen a wide variation of coloring on these that it becomes a necessity to color match. If you don't you will need to paint the sky color a uniform light blue for a nice panarama OR you can pay $300 or more for a Backdrop Warehouse backdrop that will have a uniform sky color.
If you want to see these go to: http://realisticbackgrounds.com/index.cfm?page=cf/realisticbg.cfm

Looking at the web sight I was thinking you could cut some of the scenery were it meets the sky. This could be glued using what I already have painted as a sky background. I was looking at possibly doing this with the mill but the mountains and small town would also work along with several others they offer. Thanks for the web link. I will bookmark it for future use.
Joe

Joe seems to have the answer here. Just paint a sky background 18" high and cut the sky out of the backdrop and glue the remaining scenery to the sky background. Seems the savings probably is worth the extra effort. Ralph.

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Originally posted by Radar:
Joe seems to have the answer here. Just paint a sky background 18" high and cut the sky out of the backdrop and glue the remaining scenery to the sky background. Seems the savings probably is worth the extra effort. Ralph.

My son Doug suggested that I do it this way but I already glued the backdrop scenes to some heavy artboard before I noticed the vast difference in the sky color. The difference in coloring is a result of variations in the Duquesne printing process. It is hard to obtain repeatability of color so its best to look and compare each scene before you buy these or if you buy online you can request that they match them for you. Yes you could trim the scenes with a razor knife and then glue them on larger sheets of foam or artboard that is painted in a sky blue color. That would probably look good but I did it the hard way (painting the sky on the scene) but the result is still quite striking. A few light mists of white paint in a few areas does really make a difference as they really look like clouds. In summation the Backdrops by Realistic background look nice and are very cost effective but just match before you buy.

I used 3 of these and i was very happy with them for the price.

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Originally posted by Erictrainman:
I used 3 of these and i was very happy with them for the price.

What are the sizes of the backrounds? I don't see a price online. Is it bassicall for o scale. Do you know what scale their buildings are too?