[phoeno30]

Excellent start there RickD, before youlay your tape, paint your slots the colour of the lanes. Its a bit of a time consuming task but it well worth it when it comes to marshalling.

I too painted my surface in the light grey colour but think the next one will be a darker grey.

Looks of room for scenery which is important and adds to the pleasure of the track.

Just take your time and maintain a high level of detail with the things you do. Once its built, its built for a while and could be tough to change.

 

[phoeno30]

RickD,

No power taps necessary as far as I know. None of the board tracks in our group have them with no noted loss of power anywhere.

Copper tape, its easy to lay, just like putting sticky tape down. On corners, try to only stick the outside edge of the tape flat and have the inside overlap on itself slighty as the inside radius of the tape needs to be shorter than the outside.

With the painting of the slots, i got a small brush about an inch wide and trimmed half of the bristles off so it was easier to get it in the slots to paint. It will be messy but you need another coat of top paint to finish it off so it will work out ok.

As for the sanding, I can't recall if I sanded mine or not to be honest but I know I made my brush strokes fairly parallel to the slots and I have very good grip.

Some guys in our group have added stuff to their paint that is used on stairs to improve grip levels but I am not convinced it works in slot terms. When the track is dusty it is better for sure but when vaccumed or wiped with a damp cloth, you then get less rubber on the track as the tyres runs over the raised fragments (sand like) on the surface. Less contact = less grip so smoother the better. Maybe sand down after your second coat, but only lightly.

Hope this helps.