SlotForum banner

new kid on the block!

61K views 324 replies 37 participants last post by  Ember 
#1 ·
hello all, after far too many hours spent reading all the excellent advice and information on this site i've got going with my wooden track and literally up to my elbows in contact adhesive, grouting and paint mixing, and loving every minute of building my new sandstone cliffs.i got going again with the old scalextric track over the summer as a neighbour gave me a load of old curves, the track grew, bigger than the toy room and into the big space i've got near my workshop, during august that track was decorated and filled with props (with help from my 6 year old, who built a lego snack area for the pits!) and we have since staged a successful tournament last saturday with 27 drivers of all ages (not bad for a village of 250 people), since then i started on track number 2 in wood, have done the levels, routing and nearly finished the cliffs, but awaiting the copper and still tons of modelling to do.....but how happy am i doing it?, you get to regress to being a 4 year old mucking about with dirt and paint and glue, then when its done you turn in to an 8 year old and speed around a small spanish village at 1/32nd scale....GREAT.

anyway, just wanted to sign in and will try and post some pics soon of the 2 tracks,(when i've figured out how!)

cheers sig
 
#52 ·
praise indeed from another one of the masters!, bill, you are pretty much one of the big reasons i started this track, i dont know how many times i've watched the vid of fiorio, and the making of fotos, and you'll notice i've plagiarised your great idea of racing round the square. i hope you dont mind, it was just too good to leave alone!!!!!?
 
#53 ·
Very nice work on the church sig! A rotary tool might work for cutting in the opening without causing much damage to the brittle paste. Any plans to model the balustrade? And for my own curiosity, where are you building this track? Glimpses of the space surrounding the track, the trusses above it and some of the photographic angles have me thinking that you are in a very large and interesting building. I'd love to see interior and exterior photographs of it, if you don't mind.

Thanks for the update.
Brad
 
#54 ·
cheers, brad, yep the clock and balustrade need doing aswell as the door, just put the glass in the windows, and i notice theres some stone balls on the eaves to do, plus an iron cross on the facade! i want to try and fine line some more detail on the facades triangle, it looks like its made of butter!

thespace is great, its the villages old dancehall and cinema, 450 m2 where i have my workshop and we recently reopened the bar, the tracks are above the bar, i'll post a pic

cheers for now, the kids are back!!!
 
#55 ·
CAVE PAINTING!


ok i took the lid off the village to start putting the paste on the floor ready for cobbles and tree roots, so as it takes ages to dry i thought i'd sort out the cave...while its easily accesible, luckily the polystyrene isnt all stuck down yet so it was relitively easy to do with the black grout and the badly mixed emulsion!. i'd better sort out lights for the roof of the 2 tunnels otherwise it'll be buried forever, dolls house lights i hear are what i need?? can i pass a couple of fine cables now and then wire up later or will it be a nightmare? and will the heat from normal small bulbs melt the polystyrene?, i'll organise the wiring to link up with the plaza lamp posts that i've got planned.
i guess i need to plan for these things going wrong, the cave isnt the most accesible of places, it involves taking the village off every time, which means more joints in the copper tape etc!
any way help needed please (again!)

heres some atmospherics!!hee hee, i love macro!




my guys are gonna need some flippin tools, can't get much done with just a cloth, maybe thats what they're argueing about?http://www.slotforum.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif
 
#60 ·
cheers guys, its great to get good feedback for something you love doing...and its all luck, i'm just learning the ropes here!

anyway i've had my head in a bucket of plasterboard paste doing the plaza.
heres some brief fotos of the process, and many thanks to lars for his detailed account of his method in his thread
the difference is i put the paster directly onto the routed mdf. first i reinforced underneath the panels with pine, and then cout slots into the top of the mdf to give the plaster something to 'bite 'onto, the mdf was untreated
i t seems to stick very well, i tried scraping a bit off (around the footprint of the church)and i ended up digging into the wood, its so porous, that it grips inherently.
then after 2 coats of plaster (about 2-3 mm total) and 2 days (its frustratingly slow) i couldnt wait anymore and started drawing the plaza on. the great thing about the plaster is it brings up loads of cool textures ' by mistake', so look out for features in the plaster and draw them out when carving.
i just used an old screw driver and a straight steel ruler

for the curved bits you just do it by hand. then have a good look at it (prferably back lit ) and go round again, widening score lines as necessary, the ruler tends to make things look too straight, so you go round again, messing it up a bit. the flag stones had a much larger groove than the cobbles (twist the screwdriver while dragging it!) the roots of the tree are real roots , stuck into the plaster mixture and then carved around to make them look like they're pushing up the old flagstones. the 'soil is greener and i'll put some weeds on there now.
all breakage of the plaster whilst carving is great, it makes the cobbles look older.

i used black spray gloss after the plaster, and then wall paint, on a VERY dry thick brush...you obviously cant get paint into the grooves



its really very easy, all the painting (after the black dried) took about 20 minutes! and it real gives great effects without even trying, everyone should have a go.

right i want to fix it back on the track cos these flurescents are doing my head in!

hope you like the result

heres some rich church goers!

 
#61 ·
Wish I had an excuse for cobbles or some such. Looks great Sig. Like the break down of the stones around the tree. You have a nice balanced touch, both with textures (eg. the cobbles) and finishes (cave puddles etc).

Watching with interest, as always.
 
#64 · (Edited by Moderator)
Picture #3 in post #60, the low angle overview looks just fantastic! I especially like that the roots of the tree has cracked the pavement. Very neat detail, that!

But I wonder, how will plaster stand for wear & tear .. Do you just *seal* it with a coat of paint?

-- ron --
 
#66 ·
thanks again folks , i'm not too worried about the plaster, if it cracks it should follow one of the cuts any way, and the whole lot was quite well sealed with the black gloss, plus, it really was well fixed to the virgin mdf

regarding the cabling, yes i've been wondering how to do it, it will be wired up underneath, and i;ll sort the village as a seperate entitiy, to be connected under the bridge and near the grass, so it can be taken on and off, the crossing, i'll copy the sclextric one i've got here, should be fun!

bridge bits should arrive next week....whoooosh!
 
#67 ·
Fantastic work sig - the cobblestone is brilliant! I would suspect that the plaster will hold up rather well considering the MDF substraight. And if it eventually shows signs of ware, that's even better. 1:1 cobblestone shows signs of ware and even becomes depressed from tyres on well traveled roads. Any chips can be washed again with the black gloss.

I can't believe how quickly you are progressing with this - keep up the good work!
Brad
 
#70 ·
it's looking magnificent.

And very nice photos, I'll be lurking around for further updates.

cheers
 
#71 ·
hi kids!

OK at last i managed to download the precursor to the laying of the plaster in the plaza to make everything clear, showing the carved up mdf and the pole for the tree to rest on


also on a walk around here at the weekend we saw some cool (and easy)countryside accesories, which i've tried to emulate

the 'fuente' (drinking fountain)


this need painting still but is a bit of old rusty steel tube, with plaster inside (shaped with finger to make a bowl shape) and a carved up bit of wood (done with small grinder ) and some palster paste to give the stone texture, the tap is a steel hook (nail type )shortened and with a blob of weld on the top (and a bit of welding wire that got stuck on there which i quite like!) obviously needs integrating into the landscape as yet

then we found a memorial cross, which is dead easy, a carved up bit of mdf left over and a nail drilled into the bottom, the cross i made from stainless, but could easily be from a saint christopher or something....(i'm gonna nick one that we've got in the house for sticking on the front of the church


also been applying plaster board paste to other bits of the track, the texture you get is so good that it makes even the painted and aged pieces of track look crude!, trying to decide on the other building too, a bar for sure (probably our bar!) and some balcony detail would be nice, we'll see!

thats all for now, seeee ya!
 
#73 ·
thankyou for your concern rene!, indeed, that particular rogue element (there are a few lurking in the track due to my inexperienced routers hand!) has been dealt with and eliminated, the cars can get all the way until under the tunnel now before exploding into shrapnel. i ran out of mdf under the tunnel and it hasn't been routed at all yet! its just the way i work!

cheers sighttp://www.slotforum.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif
 
#74 · (Edited by Moderator)
ok, time for another update, been painting the roads, in preparation for the bridge (hopefully thursday), and generally mudding down all the tracks,apart from the tunnel to the main road, which still needs to be sorted (not sure what to do with the overhanging road!)

also started on more buildings ( an abstracted version of our bar and a beaten up old house) has anyone ever put fotos of real windows behind the perspex, it should look more realistic than just paionting them black, i'll give it a try later, as the bar windows are very big and it should give more of a sense of depth.



the thing is now i've got a problem with the plaza that 'leaks' out the back.....between the church and the bar leads a path into the rest of the village, but at the moment its just a gap, i need to give the impression of the rest of the village but on flat boards? fotos , fake perspectives, blurred looking buildings??? what do i do??


this next one is for rene!, to prove i fixed the slot, and showing the nice place for a picnic, i'm gonna have to do a crash scene on that left turn after the straight to fill in the gap on the main road after the turn


we're getting there..hope the bridge bits get done for thursday, could be exciting

cheers sig, (any ideas about my plaza corner welcome)
 
#75 ·
Looking great. Should be fun when things are all up and running. I like your idea of filling the bar windows with a photo of the inside of the bar. Should work a treat.

As far as how to take care of the outskirts and suggesting the rest of the village beyond the square...
Photos would work. I can't see any reason why not. Its a trick I've used when doing 3D computer animated scenes. Surround the set with a cylindrical wall with panaramic photos projected on the inside.
Perspective matt painting would also work, a trick from old school film set dressing. Depends on how handy you feel with a paint brush.
Another possible approach related to matt painting, allows for building more and painting less, but might depend a bit more on the available room. Build the rest of your village essentially flat, several layers of card. Make use of forced and diminishing perspective, less detail and depth the further away. These can then be arranged into the background area, sort of pop-up book style if you will. This method would let you 'construct' the village if you don't feel comfortable with drawing or painting it.
Not sure if I've made a whole lot of sense there. Oh well.

Can't say I've tried any of the above ideas on a diarama, but I have done them all at one time or another. The pop-up style version I used on puppet theatre sets that I helped a friend build when I was still hopefull of being able to survive as an art glassblower.

No doubt there is one way that will strike as being more suited to your situation (and personality) than others.

Whatever you do, I know it'll look great.

Embs
 
#76 ·
Terrific progress sig! It's amazing to me just how quickly you are moving along with such fantastic results.

QUOTE has anyone ever put fotos of real windows behind the perspex Yes, I think Graham Lane did this on some of the buildings on this layout. You will find photos somewhere in his Castello Slot Racing thread. His track build is a great source of information. Also, I think he faced some of the same concerns you have regarding the gap between the church and the bar. The only thing that I've modelled that is similar to the gap is the Paddock tunnel under the track at Prairie Ridge. I made a fake perspective on a flat board in an attempt to make the tunnel look as if it continues on under the track when in reality it is only about 5cm deep. Your situation is certainly more difficult, but I have faith in your abilities - I'm sure that you'll pull it off brilliantly


Thanks for the update.
Brad
 
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