Usually when I complete a diorama and post it online for sale, I use a white studio drop sheet as the background. At the same time, I have seen many folks (particularly Francois Verlinden) that use poster-like prints to place behind the item to enhance the visual effect in a photo. I have found a few such posters for scale train setups, but all are "US" oriented... while most of my dioramas are based in Europe (WWI and WWII). Does anyone have a good lead or link for where I might find European backdrop posters? Bridges, natural scenery, sky's with burning plums of smoke... things like that would be most helpful!

Also, I use a LOT of dry transfer decals intended for use on scale trains (THOSE guys get lots of neat stuff), but again, I can never find any European stuff. I would love to find dry transfers of commercial Euro logos and advertiment signs as well... I have used just about every cardboard production print from Velinden and Custom Dioramics, and I would really like to find some more original stuff... particularly in DRY TRANSFER as opposed to printed paper. Again - there is TONS of that sort of stuff (Cigars, Soda, Shaving Cream, Vitamins, etc.) that is correct for the period, but it is all geared towards AMERICAN businesses and products.... I'm reaching out to my European brothers (and sisters?) to see if any of you have any resources for me?

Here's another possible source for printed European signs & adverts,

http://www.langleymodels.co.uk/

they make railway accessories in HO, OO & O gauge. Unfortunatly they have no illustrations on their site. This is a sample of an O gauge set I have.

Perfect! This is EXACTLY the type of thing i need... more - more MORE!!!!!

Just an idea...
How about using a recruitment , propaganda or ad poster (1:1) from that era as a backdrop?
I just love the graphic design and gouache illustration work of the 1940´s era! Could be fancy...
:-)

Toni

There is an outstanding photo-resource for ardennes and normandy dios. I´m sure, You´ll like it.

http://www.twenot.nl/diorama.htm