[greenjo2]

Well I recently completed a permanent 115' plastic track in my basement and then I managed to talk my wife into letting me build a routed track. I'm still not sure how I managed to do that but I did.

Here are some pictures of the build.

I used 2"x4"'s and plywood to contruct the track table.

I found a CNC operator to purchase the MDF and route it for me. I was more than happy to avoid having all that MDF dust in my house.

Greay primer was put down first.

Several coats of magnetic primer was then added to the corners for those that race with magnets.

The corners were then taped and painted with red and white stripes.

I then cut backer board into 3" strips and printed out a lot of color sponsor banners and placed them around the track for borders.

Black paint was then applied to the rest of the track surface.

Copper tape was put down over the weekend using this great taping tool, which made the job very easy.

Driver stations, power supply and timing system are up next.

Thanks for looking.

John

 

[JamieG]

I must say I'm a little jealous of all the space you have

Great work

I am building a 3-lane track and right now I should put down the copper tape so definetively I am going to build a taping tool.
Did you build it yourself or did you get from somewhere? Any data/hint will be appreciated at this moment.

My option for the track surface is to go with a lighter colour in order to be able to have tyre marks and the like.
One question: how are you going to cope with the lane differences and what lead you to not to have a loop?

Cheers,
JamieG

 

[greenjo2]

Jamie, I got the taping tool from oldslotracer.com, it cost $40 and was well worth the money. It really made putting the tape down very easy, even the corners were no problem.

When we race we typically run heats and each driver will run a heat in each lane. At the end of the three heats the driver who completed the most laps wins so the lane differences never really matter.

 

[JamieG]

OK, I did not recognize the taping tool is made in plastic blue now. I always seen it transparent from oldslotracer.etc.
I have consider to buy it but it is quite expensive for one shot use (or few more) + international shipping

Cheers,
JamieG

 

[JamieG]

I realized only now! You made a huge mistake with the lane colours

They should have been "green - white - red".... like the Italian flag

Sorry for the joke but I am Italian born and in my track (in Sweden) it will be like that!

Cheers,
JamieG

 

[greenjo2]

QUOTE (JamieG @ 15 Aug 2011, 13:07) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I realized only now! You made a huge mistake with the lane colours

They should have been "green - white - red".... like the Italian flag

Sorry for the joke but I am Italian born and in my track (in Sweden) it will be like that!

Cheers,
JamieG

I didn't even think about that but you are right. I chose the colors 'Green' n 'White' because those are the school colors of the university I went to. Red ended up being the 3rd color because it was one of the color choices for the driver stations that I ordered.

I have been purchasing a lot of the Italian NSR slot cars for this track.

 

[JamieG]

then you are still in time to give honour to your Italian beasts

Cheers,
JamieG

 

[greenjo2]

Here are some updated track pictures. The power supply and timing system are up and running. Scenery work has started.

Driver stations are hooked.

My youngest son, 4 years old, ripping off some fast lap times. At 4 he's less than a second off of the track record.

Here are some pics of the scenery I've started. I managed to find three boxes of vintage 1966 Monogram 1/32 scale spectators, vendors, track officicals and drivers that were new in box and unpainted, great find for me. I painted them up and started to incorporate them into the layout.

 

[sealevel]

Those figures are a great find!

What about the grey "low" retaining wall? Was that part of your find as well?

You are making great progress! Like JamieG I was surprised to see you finish the track as black....
Seems most people try not to replicate the plastic track colours.

Still following your developments with great interest.

Keep up the good work.
Cheers!

 

[greenjo2]

QUOTE (sealevel @ 2 Sep 2011, 04:57) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Those figures are a great find!

What about the grey "low" retaining wall? Was that part of your find as well?

You are making great progress! Like JamieG I was surprised to see you finish the track as black....
Seems most people try not to replicate the plastic track colours.

Still following your developments with great interest.

Keep up the good work.
Cheers!

The grey low retaining walls were a find. I found them in the kids play room sitting around collecting dust. They are made for 1/43 scale remote control cars and used to make racing circuits but I found a better use for them.

I like the look of black asphalt over the color of grey cement so black was the color of choice for this track, not to mention the black paint was on sale

John

 

[sealevel]

Thanks, John.

Keep up the good work!

Cheers!

 

[greenjo2]

I got the other two controllers for the track so we can all race at the same time. The two new ones for the kids have the XLR hook up to prevent improper hook ups from the kids.

We also did a little work on our garage / car storage area.

 

[Datto]

That just looks like tons of fun! Good work!

 

[greenjo2]

It was a busy holiday weekend and thanks to the weather I was able to get a lot of track scenery work done.
I decided to fill in the gaps from the elevation changes with fake rock walls, dirt hills and some wood retaining walls. I used modeling fiber on my last layout and decided to use it again on this one. It's easy to use and very versatile. It doesn't create as nice or realistic rocks as some of the other methods but it's easier and much faster, cheaper as well.

Here is some of the fiber waiting to be applied.

Here's the prepared area where the fiber is going. I put up a layer of cardboard stapled to the MDF and the wood beneath. Drywall tape was added to help the fiber stick to the cardboard.

The fiber is spread like paste with a spatula.

Time to add some color.

Do you a little contouring with the spatula and some moss and you have instant scenery.

Started to outline where the pit entrance and pit lane will be.

 

[dreinecke]

Wow! That layout is huge! Nice work so far!

 

[greenjo2]

I've managed to get some more scenery done on this layout.

I added the half tires (from RixVette of Jerzeywallz here on SCI) to this turn and a few shrubs around the area.

Put in some Palm Trees in this area along with some shrubs.

Here is the pits and the pit entrance the kids and I built. We made the pit stalls out of bass wood and some of Geezers pdf banners.

Palm trees in this area also. Still working on the sidewalk running through this area.

here is some updated garage area pics

spectator parking area

 

[RikkiGTR]

Fantastic track.