1/32 Vintage Revell comes back to life

13812 Views 66 Replies 16 Participants Last post by MrFlippant, Oct 22, 2011

Mike Buettner

Discussion Starter · Jul 31, 2011 (Edited by Moderator)

I'm reviving my 40 year old 1/32 scale Revell set. 55 feet of track on a light weight 5'X12' torsion box table in my garage. The table will be on an electric winch that will raise up to the ceiling. I've selected a layout and am now about half way finished building the table.

Track layout

Test of 1/4" Ventura tape on track

Test of soldering brass strip into track for power tap

I pulled the stock Revell contact rail out of the track and cut a notch in it

Brass strip under track. From here I can solder a wire on

Track numbered and awaiting table

Baltic birch plywood for table top and bottom

Taping tool for laying down tape. Sweet!

Pins on bottom of taping tool slide in track to assure easy alignment of tape on track

Laying out the 5'X12' torsion box table

Ripping the ribs for the torsion box. I don't have a table saw so I built a sled for my circular saw. Now I get nice straight consistent cuts

Pile of ribs. Main ribs (2 - 12' and 5 - 5') are 1X 1 3/4" KD pine. Secondary ribs will be 1/4" ply.

See less See more

Save

1 - 2 of 67 Posts

Aurora

· #11 · Aug 2, 2011

Great topic Mike! Posts like this, that illustrate ideas and techniques with high-quality photos, are a fantastic resource. Thanks for taking the time to take the photos, AND post them!

Save

Aurora

· #38 · Aug 25, 2011 (Edited by Moderator)

Hi Mike, nice work!

My track wiring is very similar to your's, and I used resettable polymer fuses on my terminal blocks as well. As Brad has done, I've also installed fuses into each driver station. As for the exact reason I installed them, I can't quite remember anymore. I think I installed them because I thought that I needed to protect the circuitry AFTER the terminal block, as well as offering additional protection to the controller. Whatever the reason, I can tell you that over the past 8 years or so, I've had at least one or two of these drivers' station fuses blow (even though I also have the circuit breakers), which suggests to me that an overload somehow made it past the resettable polymer fuses. So I would concur with Brad, and suggest that you may want to consider installing them. A very cheap extra bit of protection.

As for controllers, I use a simple Parma Economy that I've rewired to have selectable resistance values of 25, 35, and 45 ohms. I can drive most any type of car, from old vintage cars that draw a ton of current, to modern plastic RTR cars. If you go with Parmas, I can give you the parts list and wiring diagram.

See less See more

Save

1 - 2 of 67 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month