Joined
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27 Posts
Hello all, My name is Gary, I just turned 61 and I live in Detroit. You know, The Arsenal of Democracy. 
A little background: I've been building static models for more than 50 years, mainly WWII aircraft, mostly fighters in 1/32 and 1/24 scale, and I'm good enough at it to have had pieces displayed in a museum. Well, at least until the museum burned down, but that's another story. About ten years ago I got rather heavily into RC Tanks and I have a youtube channel about RC Tanks and the soft skinned support vehicles that go with them. I also have two 3D printers, one FDM and one SLA, so I've even printed out entire trucks and made them RC. My favorite tank is my 1/6 scale Hetzer, and the main gun on that tank shoots .50 caliber paintballs. For those that don't know, 1/6 scale is the same as the old 12 inch GI Joe action figures, so the tank is pretty good size. Probably weighs in well over 100 lbs and runs on a 24 volt system. I do both 1/6 and 1/16 scale, and most of the 3D printed stuff is in the smaller scale. I'm up to about 25 tanks and just as many trucks and jeeps in that scale.
I recently pick up a Carrera Spirit of Speed Digital set, that came with three cars. I can't believe how these things have advanced since I had slots as a kid in the 70s. So I added a bunch of goodies so I now have two pit lanes, about 60 feet of track, a Camaro pace car and a driver's display (just one for now, more as budget allows) and running on limited fuel is very cool, IMHO. I also picked up a couple more cars, one of them being a BMW Williams F1 car that is too old to run on my track, so that was one of the first learning experiences - just because ebay says it's digital that doesn't necessarily mean it will work on my layout.
I'm looking forward to learning from the people here, and I've done some lurking and read some threads so I know there are some very talented and knowledgeable people here. One of my goals is to be able to stage a race with at least 4 to 6 F1 cars, as soon as I get cars that work on my track. I'll also be asking questions about how to convert other brands of F1 slot cars, like Scalextrics and Slotit, just to name two, to run on my track. I'm looking forward to hearing from anyone else that runs F1 or Indy cars. I just ordered two hairpin turns and have it set in my mind how things will look when finished. Right now I'm just on a very large basement floor, but as budget allows I'll start building tables for a permanent layout. I have enough space to easily hold five 4x8 tables in an L shape (that would be 32 feet long and 12 feet along the bottom of the L and four feet wide), maybe even more, so it's gonna take some lumber, and I'm sure you guys know how that's gone through the roof on price lately. The sheet of plywood I used to get for $15 to $20 is now about 40 bucks. Ouch.
And just so you know, when people ask me, "How are ya?" I usually respond with, "Old, fat, ugly, tired and broke". I think that pretty much covers it.
Again, I'm really looking forward to getting to know the people here and hopefully I might even be able to make some valuable contributions. I hope so, anyway!
A little background: I've been building static models for more than 50 years, mainly WWII aircraft, mostly fighters in 1/32 and 1/24 scale, and I'm good enough at it to have had pieces displayed in a museum. Well, at least until the museum burned down, but that's another story. About ten years ago I got rather heavily into RC Tanks and I have a youtube channel about RC Tanks and the soft skinned support vehicles that go with them. I also have two 3D printers, one FDM and one SLA, so I've even printed out entire trucks and made them RC. My favorite tank is my 1/6 scale Hetzer, and the main gun on that tank shoots .50 caliber paintballs. For those that don't know, 1/6 scale is the same as the old 12 inch GI Joe action figures, so the tank is pretty good size. Probably weighs in well over 100 lbs and runs on a 24 volt system. I do both 1/6 and 1/16 scale, and most of the 3D printed stuff is in the smaller scale. I'm up to about 25 tanks and just as many trucks and jeeps in that scale.
I recently pick up a Carrera Spirit of Speed Digital set, that came with three cars. I can't believe how these things have advanced since I had slots as a kid in the 70s. So I added a bunch of goodies so I now have two pit lanes, about 60 feet of track, a Camaro pace car and a driver's display (just one for now, more as budget allows) and running on limited fuel is very cool, IMHO. I also picked up a couple more cars, one of them being a BMW Williams F1 car that is too old to run on my track, so that was one of the first learning experiences - just because ebay says it's digital that doesn't necessarily mean it will work on my layout.
I'm looking forward to learning from the people here, and I've done some lurking and read some threads so I know there are some very talented and knowledgeable people here. One of my goals is to be able to stage a race with at least 4 to 6 F1 cars, as soon as I get cars that work on my track. I'll also be asking questions about how to convert other brands of F1 slot cars, like Scalextrics and Slotit, just to name two, to run on my track. I'm looking forward to hearing from anyone else that runs F1 or Indy cars. I just ordered two hairpin turns and have it set in my mind how things will look when finished. Right now I'm just on a very large basement floor, but as budget allows I'll start building tables for a permanent layout. I have enough space to easily hold five 4x8 tables in an L shape (that would be 32 feet long and 12 feet along the bottom of the L and four feet wide), maybe even more, so it's gonna take some lumber, and I'm sure you guys know how that's gone through the roof on price lately. The sheet of plywood I used to get for $15 to $20 is now about 40 bucks. Ouch.
And just so you know, when people ask me, "How are ya?" I usually respond with, "Old, fat, ugly, tired and broke". I think that pretty much covers it.
Again, I'm really looking forward to getting to know the people here and hopefully I might even be able to make some valuable contributions. I hope so, anyway!
