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Pits - well I though about this long and hard. I wanted a pits so I could park some cars and give my layout a racing feel. As the layout's a scale model of reality, I decided to add some pits, but to fit them in without blocking any view of the track and thereby hindering the racing. Some buildings are just too big and although those Carrera ones look cool, I think that many a modeller is going to have trouble fitting them on the table.
So I went about designing and building my own. I've recently been using compressed foam and quite like how easily it is to cut and work with. It glues well using a special solvent free glue used to fix polystyrene cornices to ceilings.
I looked around for a design and stuck upon Le Mans 1976. The pits were not the garages as we know today, but were not the work rooms of the 60's with cars being worked on outside the pit wall.
This is what I was after (Note the Greenwood "Spirit of Le Mans" Corvette):
![]()
I figured that the little 1:32 men would be around 5.5 cm high and I'd want them to look OK in and around the building. Although the building is not to true scale, they fit. The cars fit in the garages quite well too.
Here is my progress, about 5 hours work from design to what you see.
If you want to do something similar, here is a link to the plan
![]()
The design sketched out in my workbook:
![]()
Some foam cross-sections cut out and roughly assemble to see how it looks:
![]()
Starting to glue up the structure:
![]()
Quite strong in terms of structural strength:
![]()
To see what it looks like on the track:
![]()
Aging, it seems to look fine:
![]()
So I went about designing and building my own. I've recently been using compressed foam and quite like how easily it is to cut and work with. It glues well using a special solvent free glue used to fix polystyrene cornices to ceilings.
I looked around for a design and stuck upon Le Mans 1976. The pits were not the garages as we know today, but were not the work rooms of the 60's with cars being worked on outside the pit wall.
This is what I was after (Note the Greenwood "Spirit of Le Mans" Corvette):
I figured that the little 1:32 men would be around 5.5 cm high and I'd want them to look OK in and around the building. Although the building is not to true scale, they fit. The cars fit in the garages quite well too.
Here is my progress, about 5 hours work from design to what you see.
If you want to do something similar, here is a link to the plan
The design sketched out in my workbook:
Some foam cross-sections cut out and roughly assemble to see how it looks:
Starting to glue up the structure:
Quite strong in terms of structural strength:
To see what it looks like on the track:
Aging, it seems to look fine:
