Suggestions for Winter Village backdrop?

Skadar

Every year my kids and I break out our Winter Village collection and set it up in our bay window (facing inwards so we can play with it). This works great except for one thing... the sun. Direct sunlight is bad for Legos.

Can anyone suggest a backdrop for our set up? I'm thinking of some sort of winter mountain scene printed on a rolled piece of paper or plastic. They have such things for aquariums, but the scene is typically underwater or dense forest. Any ideas?

CCC

Never open your curtains. They are watching you.

ColoradoBricks

Check some x-mas wrapping paper, some have large pattern/scenary that could be used as back drops.

CCC

Plain white card works well for winter, or half white / half blue to imply snow and sky.

You don't want anything too detailed, as it takes away from the main point of the show - the lego.

BrickDancer

Dark blue with stars, flakes or white spots to simulate a light snow effect (did this last year). A second sheet laid on top of plain white cut in a wave shape can work as snowy hills. All should be common and easily found at crafts stores.

ChgoMatt

^Poke holes through the dark blue backdrop and insert white LEDs. Twinkling, if you can find them.

ChgoMatt

There are also printed backdrops from ceramic village companies such as Department 56.

Pitfall69

CCC said:

Never open your curtains. They are watching you.

Apparently, you don't want to open curtains in Northampton, UK. You might see this guy staring back at you.

BrickDancer

^More like "It" is watching you. So creepy to watch Pennywise the clown as a kid.

graphite

^^ I wanted to make a post about that asking who from here it was but it wouldn't have been a LEGO related thread and probably wouldve been deleted. So much need here for an OT forum.

CCC

Pitfall69 said:

CCC said:

Never open your curtains. They are watching you.

Apparently, you don't want to open curtains in Northampton, UK. You might see this guy staring back at you.

Not for much longer ....

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Northampton-Clown-Catcher/513145698773018?fref=ts

princedraven

That the same bloke, he is the clown and catcher. Takes all sorts I suppose.

Pitfall69

Hahahaha. To be honest, I am now going to put a clown in my Lego city. I'm going to move him around every week and take pictures.

pantboy

Not exactly an original idea though, London has had a clown called Boris wondering around for years.

TheLoneTensor

Well yeah, but that clown up there was Pennywise, which is a clown on a whole different level ;)

pantboy

Phone crashed and repeat posted, sorry

princedraven

@tensor that photo is not Pennywise, it's some random dude in Northampton, who thought he would make himself into a mini celeb.
But you are right, Pennywise was on a different level, still hate clowns, with a passion!

tedward

I use this backdrop for winter village and general displays now. It was designed to fit in an IKEA shelving unit.

Under construction:


You could protect the back side with Xmas wrapping paper so in the window it looks like a present.

Paperballpark

^ Very impressive, but where will the other three sets go? ;)

TheLoneTensor

That is an expensive backdrop :)

CCC

Nice. But I cannot see any clowns, so it's off topic :-)

tedward

Paperballpark said:

^ Very impressive, but where will the other three sets go? ;)

I managed to get three sets in last year and the wife has given the go-ahead to expand into the adjoining shelves. :)

I will probably have to dismantle the "sides" as I will need the bricks for expansion sideways unless they have more of 2x brick in that blue in the PaB wall @ BrickCon. :)

Toymaker

We have our display inserted into an IKEA Billy unit. I've added a semi-circular shelf onto a standard Billy shelf which enables the display to project somewhat into the living room. It's about 50cm off the floor which is ideal for the children to play with.

As you can see from the pic, there is *just* enough space for 10235 and then in 2014 it's another extension, which will be easy enough.

I use a cardboard backdrop (navy/white) - my only concern is that it is very near a window, but there's not much sun for the 4 weeks it's up !

TheLoneTensor

^It's a great layout, but I challenge your assertion that there's enough room for 10235 :)