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New Track at last (lots of pics)

9K views 30 replies 23 participants last post by  Phil Kalbfell 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Greetings All,
Thought I'd post what I've been upto during the southern winter. after getting back into slotting about 12 months ago I needed to move the track and wanted to try digital. The space I had to work with was long and narrow and also needed storage for track stuff and a place to work on cars erc. so thought I'd combine all the needs. And the results:

First the track layout:

With this I wanted to get a good flow with some fast straights and a mix of bends. I went two level to get the amount of track in (amout 20m) overall length of the space was about 4.5m.
The "PT" marks are power taps, 4 in all. the PB has actually been seperated from the track. I also did a simple H upgrade. The other thing i wanted was digital/analogue in the one track. so after a little trialing I came up with a relay driven switching system. There are 3 relays driven by a standard 12V supply that also becomes the seperate power supply for the lane changes when in digital mode. The main PSU is a 15V 20A suuply from DSE (Aus).

Now some Pics:

Overall View. Suppots are still preliminary as I'll likely play round with elevation a bit yet.


The left end of the track.


tuther end.


Overall View. Once I am happy with the feel of the track I'll get into scenary etc. (all new to me) the pits will be formed with a track running over the top. Not particularly real but seamed like a fun idea.
You can see the previous track was copper topped. I'll do it again with this track once I'm happy with it. I've got the silvered copper tape this time as I reckon it'll look better once I get round to painting the track.

The work space:

Wanted a space to tune & tweak close at hand but could be hiden away as the room is a shared use space. Decided on swingout doors on casters and a desk drawer.


Car storage on left (slide out draws) and spares and larger tools on right (glue gun, rotary tool).


and the slide out desk drawer.

The other tweak to date have been the circuit board entry flipper liven tweak and am currently puttng in magnets as well mostly to hold the flippers in place while in analogue mode.

Still lots more to do, but now have a good starting point.

Cheers
mondo
 
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#2 ·
Hi!

Your track looks nice, good luck with your project. Please learn to resize your pictures to 600-650pix wide.

Cheers!

Julius
 
#8 ·
Thanks for the positive feedback guys, and yes in the future I'll pay close attention to picture size (oops
).

Gordon24, you are more than welcome to borrow any ideas. The idea came to me in one of those inspired moments (I think the last one was to get back into slot cars!!)

I'm happy after all the info and ideas I've gleaned from this forum that i can give a miniscule fraction back.

I'll update this thread over time as the track progresses

Cheers
Ray
 
#9 ·
Well I've finally got round to some scenery. So thought I'd share the results. Its my first scenery effort so its taken me awhile. Been trying all sorts of techniques as I go to see what works for me. I took a few short cuts on walls by printing out photos of different materials, bricks, concrete and even the bridge beams. The rock was a combination of styrofoam and expanding foam with plaster brushed over it.

The rails have been silver toped with the sivered copper tape, rather than the copper look. purely an asthetic choise really.

Still got the pits to do, but they will have to wait awhile as well as filling in some kind of background scenery between the rock sections.

Anyway here are the results:

Final Layout


General wide views




And some more detailed shots.




Pit Entry










 
#11 ·
it's looking fantastic, exelent use of phototextures, nice cars and nice images of your track
Keep them comming, we are some that crave for high detail images.

cheers
 
#15 ·
Yeah, looks great - I love the bridge (especially underneath!) and your rock faces. Looks nice to drive too, I imagine. I have a double-height track with wide turns at either end, it's great when you are short on space and you need to back the track onto a wall. A photographic backdrop would really add atmosphere there!

David
 
#17 ·
Very, very nice! I particularly like the right-hand LC into R1 into R2 then R4 - nice combo! I think I might consider a crossover in the middle of the esses though. It would give a better line through them and add the element of a change of lane every other lap. At least consider painting the rumble strip nearer the slot rails so the cars ride over them.

Lovely detail work on the scenery too. Well done.
 
#18 ·
Thanks for the great comments guys
,

QUOTE (justDave @ 3 Mar 2009, 01:10) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Yeah, looks great - I love the bridge (especially underneath!) and your rock faces. Looks nice to drive too, I imagine. I have a double-height track with wide turns at either end, it's great when you are short on space and you need to back the track onto a wall. A photographic backdrop would really add atmosphere there!
David
David,
I'm planning a photo backdrop at some point but I'm about to go overseas on leave next week so will have to wait till I get back.

QUOTE (Graham Lane @ 3 Mar 2009, 02:28) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Very, very nice! I particularly like the right-hand LC into R1 into R2 then R4 - nice combo! I think I might consider a crossover in the middle of the esses though. It would give a better line through them and add the element of a change of lane every other lap. At least consider painting the rumble strip nearer the slot rails so the cars ride over them.

Lovely detail work on the scenery too. Well done.

Thanks Graham, I originally had a straight where the esses where and found it a bit too easy. The esses where put in to add a bit of a challenge all be it the racing line is not 'real'.

I'll do some more scenery updates when I get back from my holiday (including a trip tro the new Porsche museum and a day at the nurburgring!!)

Cheers
 
#23 ·
Hi guys, been away awhile on leave in the EU (check the links at bottom for adventures in germany
) so no more progress other than catching up on alot of car tuning.

QUOTE (Frank T @ 5 Mar 2009, 23:44) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Nice track and fine Details.

Can you give me a few informations about the weathering?
Which colors you used ? Please

Frank,
Here is a detailed shot of the rock work with an explanation below.



I have to admit upfront that I have trawled this site for info on preparing rock faces. So this is by no means original.

The final approach I used was as follows:

1.) Basic rock structure - I used both broken chunks of styrofoam from packing stuff and also used expanding foam, particularly in there road 'cut batters' so I could carve the face as if they had been excavated out of rock.

2.) Over the foam I coated a mixture of plaster filler (the standard hardware store powder type rated for large gaps) with water and PVA (woodworking glue) glue. The glue was an experiment , the thinking being it would become harder wearing and could be scultured if needed (not that I did in the end). I applied the 'goop' with an old paint brush, by experimenting with the brush gave different textures. The goop was mixed quite thick so it would hold its shape.

3) after the plaster had set I did a wash coat with with very watery black acrylic paint. This soaked in rapidly and formed a greyish base. The remaining coats where generally dry brushed coats of Burnt Umber, Burnt Siena & Raw Siena cheep acrylic artists paints. I had to rework it a couple of times to get the effect I was after as I overdid the brown over the black to starts with. The final coat is a light dry brush of white to highlight the texture.

Hope that helps.

QUOTE (Umbra @ 5 Mar 2009, 23:51) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>haha GREAT!!! you have made the bench and stuff like i had in my head for my big track with tv and speakers and all :-D Now i have a base to work from great work.

Umbra,
Glad to be of service.

Necessity is the mother of invention in my case. I had to come up with an option that would work in a tight area and not clutter the room else I feel the wrath of the other half


Cheers
Ray
 
#26 ·
Hi Mondo
Just a pleasure to read and watch

I just stumbled over your thread when someone refered to your track and the use of printed bridge face (is that correct?).
You have utilized the spece very well with clever work and storage space added. The whole set up is of great inspiration, especially since I am planning a new track that will measure 5M x 1.40M! The race track itself looks fun and with georgeus scenery.
I look forward to see more

I might have missed it, but what did you paint the track with?
Regards
Per
 
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