This is arguably the most fun – and possibly easiest – way to create a townscape backdrop. As its name suggests, you form a collage from photographic material. The biggest issue is that many photographs of buildings are taken from unsuitable viewing heights, thus rendering them completely unusable from perspective angles, or with the wrong light or shadow. Always print images onto matt paper and keep to photographs, rather than your own artwork. Adjust photographs for perspective, colour saturation and contrast using photographic editing programs – depending on your own skills in this area. Collages can be very effective, and of course the time-saving aspect is always attractive, but they can be quite tricky when it comes to achieving that important visual consistency. If an element doesn’t look right, either work on it some more or save it for another job. Trust your instinct to reject a collaged component that somehow won’t settle down into a scene. If you leave it in it will bug you! The acid test is to ask yourself ‘does it look absolutely realistic?’. If not, now is the right time to be ruthless. Beware of adjoining a building photographed in directional lighting with very heavy shadows to one taken in uniform lighting without. There’s a big benefit in checking collage elements to ensure that the lighting and tonal settings are in keeping with the adjacent images.
A layer is added at just below the scale of the layout. The side view shows that relatively little physical depth is required to include a 3D townscape. The rigidity of the rear panel tends to keep the layer assembly sturdy enough once this has all...
Some buildings can be photographed and added into prototypical rows by editing, so it is possible to render quite an accurately researched set of buildings, then group them together to closely match a map footprint.
You can alter perspective to suit using software such as Adobe Photoshop. Trace the relevant building from your mock-up, scan it at actual size and load it into the software. You can use this as a guide to format the collage image.
Build up the layers with progressively larger scale collages, increasing spacing and folding angles into the façades, as well as introducing a slight pitch to the roofs. Make sure you include those all-important chimneypots.
Skyline buildings are detailed with chimneypots, and other preprepared layers are overlapped with concealed spacers between. Trim and fold and mount onto strips of card, increasing detail as the buildings get closer.
Producing a short test section of townscape will familiarise you with the process. This test section was made from a piece of 5mm foamboard with a sheet of sky blue matt paper fixed in place with spray mount adhesive.
The next focal layers are the first to have supports extending down to baseboard level. Folded card will suffice, and they can be kept upright with spacers. You can add plenty of architectural detailing at this stage.
Computers are excellent for modifying building façade images until they conform to a backscene’s perspective guidelines. But there is still a benefit in adding 3D details to areas such as the roof, chimney, gutters and windowsills.
You can reconfigure buildings by retouching, repeating and adjusting colour levels. Scale them from the reference to get relative sizes correct, then print onto matt paper and mount onto card, to be used as collage elements.
To allow the layers to overlap, we can start by adding the very smallest scale buildings, as they break the distant skyline. These are collaged prints mounted on flat card.
Add a sky to just below the horizon line. This could be painted or come from a photograph (as used here). The horizon line is just above the bottom edge of the clouds.