Backdropping

Once I finally decided to bite the bullet and "do-over" my backdrop, I discovered that the actual logistics weren't as complicated as expected.

At least not so far.

When we last left this project, I'd gotten as far as attaching the first backdrop backer board. Since I didn't get all of the backer glued on before company started arriving that evening, my revised timetable was to get the rest of it done Friday after work so that I could put up the extension Saturday morning, then tape/spackle the seam Saturday evening, and paint Sunday morning. It almost worked out that way...

Here's a closeup of the first section of backdrop backer board, showing the detail at one of the backdrop supports. Note the offset backer to the backdrop backer board (all these Bs are getting ridiculous!) to create a nice flush mounting surface. As I described before, the backer board itself is glued to the back of the existing backdrop, acting as a splice between the existing backdrop and the extension..

Here's how thing looked Friday night - all the backdrop backer is now in and drying. Still on timetable at this point.

Saturday morning, I removed all the clamps from the backer, confirmed that all was secure, scraped off any excess glue that would prevent the extension from mounting flush, and then applied glue to the back of the extension. NOTE TO SELF: if I ever have to do this again, I'll smooth out the glue. Leaving it like this created a lot of mess when I turned the extension vertical to mount it, and a bunch of the glue squeezed out and dripped on the floor.  Glad I put down dropcloths!

All clamped up & drying. The jaw depth of the clamps was barely enough to be sure I was able to clamp to the backer board  itself - deeper jawed clamps would have been better. I lucked out.

And here's how it looked at the end of Saturday morning. Unfortunately, that's how it still looks. We (I) got distracted by other things later that day and then had family over all day/night Sunday. So I'll try to get to taping next chance I get. That piece of scrap on the left there is my attempt to "extend" the clamping ability of my clamp a bit.  I think it worked pretty well. Hope it didn't end up getting stuck with glue.

I have meetings after work every night this week and plans for all day Saturday, so the earliest I'm likely to get back to this is next Sunday(?!). But that's ok - as long as I'm making some progress, it's better than the no progress that usually happens (progress that usually doesn't happen?).

But I hope to have my next operating session sometime in October, so I gotta ramp things up get Wethersfield back to at least what it looked like before I started this backdrop dropping backdropping project. And if there's anything that motivates progress, it's the prospect of an upcoming operating session...