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new kid on the block!

61K views 324 replies 37 participants last post by  Ember 
#1 ·
hello all, after far too many hours spent reading all the excellent advice and information on this site i've got going with my wooden track and literally up to my elbows in contact adhesive, grouting and paint mixing, and loving every minute of building my new sandstone cliffs.i got going again with the old scalextric track over the summer as a neighbour gave me a load of old curves, the track grew, bigger than the toy room and into the big space i've got near my workshop, during august that track was decorated and filled with props (with help from my 6 year old, who built a lego snack area for the pits!) and we have since staged a successful tournament last saturday with 27 drivers of all ages (not bad for a village of 250 people), since then i started on track number 2 in wood, have done the levels, routing and nearly finished the cliffs, but awaiting the copper and still tons of modelling to do.....but how happy am i doing it?, you get to regress to being a 4 year old mucking about with dirt and paint and glue, then when its done you turn in to an 8 year old and speed around a small spanish village at 1/32nd scale....GREAT.

anyway, just wanted to sign in and will try and post some pics soon of the 2 tracks,(when i've figured out how!)

cheers sig
 
#8 ·
QUOTE (sig @ 19 Sep 2009, 05:42) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>but how happy am i doing it?, you get to regress to being a 4 year old mucking about with dirt and paint and glue, then when its done you turn in to an 8 year old and speed around a small spanish village at 1/32nd scale....GREAT.
That's got to be the best explanation of why it's so great that I've heard. You're right. I may have to grow old, but I don't have to grow up!!

Cool layout on the plastic track... and well on the way on the wooden one. Looks like lots more fun ahead.

Cheers
Embs
 
#10 · (Edited by Moderator)
Sig,
Looks like a fantastic plastic track layout. I look forward to more pics of it in closeup so we may see the details.
Keep up the good work. It will be greatly appreciated on this forum.

Cheers!


PS Do you have a track plan you could share/post?
 
#11 ·
cheers guys, no plan i'm afraid, i just did it adhoc to fit on the base that i has already(a massive fibreglass plant holder!) everything else just happened on its own, looking at it now, after the detail on number 2, it looks crude, i'll have to go back to it, after the wooden one, paint the plastic, fill the gaps with paste etc, the folks that came to the race loved the detailing, and even though, theoretically they are impractical for race and marshalling purposes, they added loads to the ambience
Visit My Website[/url

not sure how this thing works, but somewhere in this url is the photobucket album of the tracks, which i'll keep adding to
 
#13 ·


started painting my 40 figures, pretty tricky but slowly getting the hang of this thing, not pro standard for sure but a lot better than the hash i made of it with gloss humbrol paint when i was 10!, the mechanics have mucky faces because i dont know how to do it properly and my white acryllic dried up about 15 years ago (its my old university set of paints!) but then mechanics should by right be dirty no?



and this is a big pile of fake grass etc made in 10 minutes while waiting for the food, and idea from mr tile guy (cheers ), basically mixing emulsion tint, with lots of water and mixing all the residue from the routing (still on my workshop floor!) and other crap (picked out the welding wire and steel!) i reckon that 10 minutes saved me 35 euros
 
#14 ·
Awesome start sig! You're building some terrific scenery, and I'd like to go on record commending you for the best use of a plant holder that I've ever seen! Like everyone else, I look forward to seeing more photos and more of the development of your wood track.

Thanks for sharing.
Brad
 
#16 ·
well spotted mr rooster, shame they dont do scale versions, shes my big baby. and mr brad, i can now die happy as you sir are indeed the boss, thanks for the inspiration (your 3d use of every space on your track ..specifically the truck tunnel...inspired me to put a cave under the village for the pit crew, and tunnels out to the main road), more stuff soon, just been trying building trees...think i've come up with a new species !!
 
#19 ·


i thought up till now that a track could do without figures..but i have to say they give it an extra dimension, a kind of story board i suppose

i'm thinking about trying for a 'wet look ' track....not raining, but maybe it rained the day before....any ideas anyone...gloss or satin laquer on the sandstone as the cliffs seep, and a bit of gloss in the ruts of the muddy zones, could be risky though..once its on, theres no going back!
 
#20 ·
Figures really do make a big difference on a layout. I find that when they start talking back to me it's time for me turn out the lights and go up to bed!

The wet look could be a neat look. I don't think that I'd do anything to the vertical faces of the cliffs as much of the water would have already run off of it by the following day. The vertical face probably dries before everything else. If you're still interested; you might try using a matte or satin finish on the vertical surfaces and the gloss finish on the paved or hard horizontal surfaces.

Brad
 
#21 ·
just back from the art shop...complete with white acryllic, and red,(i've got to paint the ladies soon, they cant be so grubby!,) also matt varnish spray and some gloss for the wet idea, should be welding chairs this afternoon, but i can feel the last bit of the cliff face beckoning so i can start painting the main road (yippee). might have to experiment again with the trees which were just coming out too mutant (like half evergreen and half deciduous)

also found a thrown out dried flower arrangement in barcelona, with loads of potential bushes and some cool wire domes on.....motorcycle ball of death anyone!
 
#22 ·


ok heres the satin 'wet look' effect in the mud ruts, i've tried some seapage around the terraces on the cliffs and it looks ok, but must be careful not to over do it or it'll turn into euro disney! (if you know what i mean)



heres my guys in the cave under neath what will be the village, once they've fixed the cars they go out via one of 2 tunnels onto the motorway...not sure if this arrangement would satisfy health and safety!




heres the muddy turn off from the main road up to the track (must finish that routed connection!)


and the over view, still tons to do..
steel bridge
old mans garage under the bridge,
olive grove on the terracing
the pit cave and tunnels
the village!
the road works on the main road
all barriers, etc

yikes
 
#24 ·
cheers ember, i'm gonna hold off on any more rain until near the end just in case!, at the moment the ideas for the details are changing daily, which brings me to my problemo

most tracks i see on here are stylised to a certain place in a certain time, and the purists pick the correct detailing for that area in that period, 60's italy, mid west america etc..this is great and correct....BUT.....the problem i've got is the following.

i live in spain and so mostly copy the scenery from around here, much of which is very beautiful of course..olive and almond groves, cherry trees, etc etc.
however i studied architecture in manchester and now work in steel, so i'm very influenced by the industrial revolution railway architecture there (big rivets, massive girders etc.)

the problem is, that the bridge detailing that i want for the track is based on 'iron bridge' in england (picture to follow) and straight opposite on the track will be the olive grove terraces typical to here.! basically that type of bridge wouldnt exist in rural spain, it'd be all rustic stone .

so...what do you all reckon, we're creating a fiction here after all, can i just mash up all my best bits in one track and hope it fits together or do i have to smooth down the styles into something more coherant??????

add to this problem the fact that i'm rubbish at making trees and they all look like they're from some kind of japanese garden, and you can see what type of pickle i'm in!
 
#26 ·
another thing... found this tree for the centre of the village square, obviously a very old tree and could provide some nice corners, the bricks around kind of represent the buildings around the plaza, the big one will be a church/hermitage.

questions, ..is the tree too big?
its gonna be in the way for de slots, but to my mind thats less important than a cool ambience in this setting
its also dead (obviously), how do i make it look greener without making it look mutant!??

HELP!




 
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