Model Railroad Paper Backdrop Buildings with LIGHTS!

Karyn has built five paper and wood backdrop buildings with "full light-up interiors" for the upper logging railroad using electroluminescent panels and "grain of rice" lights. While these buildings are for the most part less than 1/2 inch deep and very close to the track, by using perspective and forced perspective they appear much deeper and further from the track. One of the challenges of model railroad backdrops is that often they need to be as close as possible to the track, in HO this may be about one inch from the rail! So... how to make that inch look like a mile? Moreover, it's fun to add buildings to the backdrop. So how can you add lights to buildings that are flat pictures on the backdrop? Well, it is possible using EL panels. The panels are usually blueish and look bad, but this can be corrected with color correction filters used in filmmaking. CTO filters. (Color Temperature Orange) CTO comes in CTO full, corrects 5600K to 2800 K or sunlight to incondesent., also know as an 85 filter, 1/2 CTO, 1/4 CTO, and even 1/8 CTO. ANYWAY, if you layer a CTO over an EL pannel its now warm yellow, like incondesent lights. We found the 1/2 CTO worked best, but we used all 4 different ones. We found a variety pack on Amazon. Selens 16x20 inches Lighting Gels CTO Photo Lights Gel Filters Transparent Color Correction Light Sheets for Photography. $18.99 EL pannels are available on Amazon and eBay. More on eBay! Amazon: GoolRC A6 EL Panel Electroluminescent Cuttable Light Sheet Neon Sheet with 12V Actuator White $19.99 Other cool light products from Locomotive Joe on eBay.