[sig]

well, here we go again...this time a lot more tentative than the mexican track which sort of designed itself...this one is probably going to be a lot more tricky.

the first plastic track has now been ripped up and the decent bits of rockery will be donated to the local kids for army battle games and the like. the base is now as god intended, complete with the holes cut where the plant pots and water pools sat (it was an art installation of a friend of mine)

you can see its kind of 3 circles joined up in plan...this will give us the clue of how the track will work, the middle area is to be the high ground (towers etc) dividing the 2 exterior circles and the plan is to model the larger end in 1:32 and the smaller end in 1:43. the middle towers i´ll try and work in scales up to 1:72 with some smaller train and the like (obviously simple circular circuits or something)

something that i think it would be impolite not to use is the depth of the base. you can see from the close ups that the depth is about 50 cm, and the big lakes could easily be used as old quarry´s or sunken cities or something odd, and as they are in the 1:43 end its easier to make something big from them.my first though would be an inverse spiral like rally p´s mount, (but an inny not an outy!)

what else is important?

well for ages i´ve loved the uunpainted plaster that people have been doing molding and then painting, and also for years (and with my furniture ) i´ve been interested in the use of different textures within only one colour. there are many types of black and even more types of white, the different textures should be able to give it all the depth that is needed without the need for paint effects!! I HOPE!

the tricky thing will be trying to get wear and tear effects using only white....maybe thats were light grey comes in?

this will hopefully give the finished product, a quite sculptural feel which is something i´ll want to look at for the next few years (asking a lot!)

in theory this will be done with some collaboration with my pain in the arse 7 year old who thinks everything is boring at the moment, i´m trying to inspire him as he loves all things rocket powered and futuristic...also its a good way to get him to lend me his model space 1999 eagle, and all his broken toys for kit bashing.

it´ll probably take nearly forever..i need to be calmer with this one than with the last 2 as it was taking over my life too much...as you can see it´ll be really tricky and i´ll need everyones help with all the unknowns. and moral support...thanks in advance

sig

ps the track is likely to be a one laner again for space reasons, the 1:43 part should be capable of taking the 1:32 cars (like mexico). cars themes between futuristic one offs, existing 1:32 sci fi models (kit bashed ) and i ghuess a couple of classic wrecks like death race and mad max

opinions more than welcome

 

[sig]

thanks folks for the support, i have to say i´m a little nervous..out on a limb here!

bob thanks i´ll no doubt need your advice later on
mr zook, thanks i´ve just discovered what a dobro is..and your right!
ember,

i prefer the top gear insinuation to being called 'sig of the dump' when at school!! lets see if i can pull it off??

ron , thats kind of the idea, the base is great, and took loads of time to build ( i was there) so we need to do it justice, i see it as a man made island, but yes the floating meteor is cool inspiration too. wouldnt mind a few pics of the sci fi kit bashable stuff thats available cheers

davoq. here we are again ..great list, thats about everything covered, my gut is going with the utopian purity but with military undercurrents in the central tower city, and then in the out skirts chaos and rebellion in the workers ghettos(1:43) and maybe the industrial chemical plants and rocket bases over on the other side in 1:32...remember all in tones of white!!

keep em coming sig

 

[sig]

right, i´m on this now for sure...been looking for concept pics and images on google. had a brainwave

you know all those holes, well obviously (in my brain anyway) what any future scape needs in a hole is a couple of these....

nice and easy to model and a good place to start with the track...but the other side of the city? what happened to make the big holes?, a misslile silo destroyed by the rebels? a meteor strike?, or a remnant of world war 4?

this is a real pic from guatamala...reallity is stranger than fiction...a 3 story block of flats fell into this hole...it is not photoshopped

guys yes lighting is gonna be the way to add life to the monochrome. davoq , cant extend the base, its massive anyway and re doing the fibreglass would be months i´ll take the dimensions soon

mr zook. yep the vehicles will be scratches (ish ) too, i can´t really see a seat leon riding around this one, maybe some old wrecked classics for the rebels though

these caught my eye ..not as drivables but as scenery perhaps

might start on the silos, soonish, give me some concept ideas about the other craters..its 1:43 that side, can´t decide whether the rebels are trying to blow up the city (but missed) or acidental silo explosion, or past meteor hit??

and what about the stuff driving into the craters?? feasible??

all this stuff will help define the city scape, not sure as yet if its gleaming new build or partly destressed/destroyed

....come to think of it a story line would help

maybe jordi hernandez juniors grandchildren have to be brought in to help

...maybe this is mexico 2066 after something...err.....BIG happened (but what?)

ideas please folks

cheers to all sig

 

[sig]

robb ..mad isnt it... heres the clip
news reel

guatamala sink hole
they say its a sink hole opened up by the storm agatha...it could have been creating itself over years, its 32 metres deep and 20 wide, they suppose theres a cave undreneath...a similar thing happened 3 km away in 2007 causing 2 deaths and swallowing various houses!!

 

[sig]

mr zook, the yucatan is full of sink holes...more reason for this to be mexico in the future (i like a bit of continuity!)

ember i like it and know exactly what you mean, the false perspective abyss , maybe the hatchery or clone production, the other one ..due to its proximity should be something similar, but i really want some rebel activity, as the shape is more distorted, maybe this abyss has suffered a rebel attack and is blackened and smokey (here we go with the smoke machine),,,the bottom of the abyss could be tapped into a lava flow for energy, no problem with that and cue the red leds!!...i love it when a plan comes together!!

the abyss needs an endless perspective so should be a (relatively) straight forward way of practicing the false perspective...like the idea of adding another colour palet to the underworld...good thinking batman

sig

 

[sig]

wow great stuff folks, this things solidifying quicker than polyurethane paint!

ember. great images, i couldn´t have put it better myself...interesting how you think in colour!..i´d noticed that about you before, i guess for the forced perspective abyss i create an inverted truncated cone getting darker to the bottom, i need to look around for cheap plastic objects (egg shaped that can be got in various sizes for all the bolt on stuff..i thgink a good trick would be actually r4epeating a detail, bridge , landing pad, wired up egg etc and actually repeating it a few times at the different scales, i reckon in the abyss i can get down to 1:144 in 50 cm

eno dog , thanks for that cool ideas and great shop . the battlestar gallactica thing has been pencilled in for the foreground at the silo end of the track, i´d really like a 1:48 x wing too, but i´m aware that it could start looking like some kind of classic spacecraft museum!...then theres the millenium falcon and the at ats???, also in the japan shop theres loads of reduced tanks and stuffin 1:35 which when painted light grey and with different detailing look very futuristic...(the model tank that came with the space 1999 eaghle is essentially a kit bash of a standard 1:72 tank of some form)

i particularly liked this car on the concept car pics

as it happens theres a cheap diecast 1:32 in the local chinese shop which is not too disimilar!

, as my ideal job would be car design it will be good fun spicing up some existing stuff

davoq that guy is the guvnor!

the second pic is bang on what i had in mind for the 1:32 silo area and the 3rd pic is an easy way of doing the city centre. better start saving our plastic bottles and tops etc....domes , domes and more domes

found this on the same site which i thought was interesting for the 1:43 ghetto area

in the mean time trying to day dream the reason behind all this and the blood line between present day mexico and future whereever...got some ideas ...remember as we leave the mexican airfield jordi junior and the daughter of the police chief are pregnant.....i have a feeling the little sprog could be important in futurelandia!!

cheers sig

 

[sig]

just got this...the motor bikes come out of the back wheels!...slot version????
future car

 

[sig]

easy, an old mac mouse with fins glued on!

 

[sig]

mr zook, your damn right, tubes gallour especially in the pit and out in the launch area
mr dog yep its the new odd zagato that no one likes...thats the back incase you didnt know
now mr savage, i too am a big fan of giger but i never saw that train , that is fantastic, and has to be ripped off, especially when you see the little toy i´ve got on loan from my boy! tell me more, how come he designed a toy train??

ok so the game is a foot!

needed to satisfy some scale queries and photographic doubts that i had

first 1:32 against 1:43

looks like the truck is about 8 metres behind the salloon (in scale disctance)

its almost touching, but you need to play with focus too, it seems to work better if the larger object is in focus and not the other way round

ok then the pit of hell, had some old predrilled steel hanging around, so cut it to arch shape and bent into a truncated cone. i figured the holes will be usefull later on for the seapage if read light into the pit, i tried mirror below but caused loads of problems (apart from it reflected the angle of the cone so it looked like it was getting wider again, and obviously had daylight at the bottom..not good, also the pit is very wide, i think i need to build a gantry bridge around it for the cars to drive around, this will reduce the diameter, lessen the daylight entering the pit and give me a model to repeat in inferior scales further down to exaggerate the depth. i´m not sure what the bottom should be, matt black but further obscured with criss cross tubes and trusses arcross the width of the hole as it goes down so you barely see the floor because of all the 'stuff' in front of it....trick the eye!

ok now before you completely laugh in my face

, i picked up some scrap stuff around the workshop and MOCKED UP )(!) an idea of the central city , to get an idea of size of the objects.

what i found is that the city needs to be even more than 1:144 cale, the central tube is 1 m long making it a measly 144 metres in scale ...rubbish!

, and what more if i put dinky scale cars on the building they turn them into laughable toys. i think the towers should stand alone as the back drop and pretty much be without any vehicles or fine details, it needs to be kind of blurred out??

saying that, i seem to be able to get away with the 1:72 stuff (train and eagle) really close to the lower domes (about 15 cm away), but they still look like the city is in the background far away

the 1:32 side works well with the wooden arms coming out from the city...in the final version i can flase perpectivize (!) these blocks to make them look about a mile long i think.

also the total object doesnt look completely ridiculous from a distance, which i was worried about. it would seem that all scenery fotos need to be done from ground level for the best effects

once the basic architecture is in place i can start thinking about the cooles way to drive around it

well that was a useful half hour, learnt a lot....opinions please

cheers sig

 

[sig]

a couple more with false perspective arm in place and joe 90 commemorative sculpture!

starting to see how to do it now

 

[sig]

oooh i´m on a roll!

dismantled an old printer and found loads of lovely goodies

the shuttle launch pad and dock....

a couple of lift shafts for the towers (super detailes and working!)

and another dock / entrance/ garage that looks kind of sinister and futuristic

obviously all need loads of extra work and texture treatment, but i´m very pleased with the work i saved myself just opening up the printer...literally every component is useful...will be scrounging other busted electronic stuff soon

 

[sig]

cheers marko, lets hope so

mr bleep, i always suspected i was truly fashionable, but nobody ever agrees!!

remind me to get a sexy red head having "fun" behind one of the tower windows!!

 

[sig]

thanks for the comments folks...achieved a lot yesterday and many questions answered but many more posed!

i think the plan of attack now is to de-bulk the city with an eye to the ´racing experioence´(tunnels, bridges, under and over etc), i think ember that the city should shrink down at the base (the opposite of what you suggest!) , i see it as a kind of 2 point vanishing point kind of sketch, the perspective dissappeares to the centre of the base of the city but also the tower height goes off further so should be tapered into the sky too.

its also as much about maths as architectural compostion, the mdf arm goes from 14cm high at the front down to 4cm at the city

1:32 =14cm

therefore 4cm relates to 1:112 (i think) which is still too big, i want it about half that size so i´m going to cut the taper down to 2cm...that way we can assume that at the city we´re around 1:224..so the 1m high tower is 224 m high in scale..which will do!

the steel dome i have is 50cm diametre at 1:200 make the real building 100m diameter and 50 m high...which is nearly realistic!!

then with the arms it will help a lot with bracing lets say every 3m, going into the distance, i´ll draw some scale lines on and see if if helps.

so ....the plan of attack is to get rid of the big bits of wood and taper as much as i can, and try and understand the perspective and scales at each portion of the track..i´ll just get on with it, its more confusing to explain than actually do...better get a calculator out

seeeee ya sig

 

[sig]

more false perspective arms.. and tapered looking towers, starting to understand how this thing works now,

the thing is i´ve backed myself into a corner, the more correct the perspective of the model is..then the more odd it´ll look when a 1:32 car goes beyond its scale barriers...therefore meraning the track theoretically can only be on the out side of the base....need to

1 either break the rules
2 figure out a way of driving the cars over or through the architecture
3 choose vehicles that are so odd that they are kind of scale less

any ideas....whats a scaleless vehicle??, to some extent all rockets are because we´re not used to seeing them

also need to get a moveable back drop its dead difficult to understand the fotos with all the stuff in the background sorry, its getting busy already, you see the reason for the monochrome now....or at least limited palet (see i´m already starting to bend my own rules!

opinions please sig

 

[sig]

new entry boxes at 1:32 around the perimetre of the rocket area

looking towards the heart of the city

ok i´m quite happy with the out line of the city towers and the rocket area is starting to fall into place, need to work on 2 silos (one open with missile) in 2 of the holes near the sentry´s

the back side of the city seems to be energy production and minerals at the moment, my old welders transformer makes a bold statement as some sort of electrical power centre, but as yet i´m concentrating on the other side.

one thing i do know is that the curve of the big steel dome i´ll take down in to the pit its sitting on, i like the idea that this is only the tip of the iceberg city

now looking at the track closer with a camera , i don´t actally hgave any trouble with the bigger cars being closer to the city, as long as there are no obvious scale markers (like people and doorways) then the 1:32 can pass close to the sides of the city without looking too strange.

obviously they cant go stright through it but there seems to be enough space at the sides to go from front (rockets ) to back(pits).

the question is what to do at the front and back, i will probably turn the perspective arms into rows of arches so they can be crossed, and we have the inevitable slides around the silos.

i really think they should drive into the pit , through a tunnel and some out of the other pit, but all on a faux steel gantry!!

, the tunnel from one to the other is about 50cm so any de slots in there are gettable with care

what about double level racing, flyovers and the like, could be good but see no reason as yet, maybe leave the suspended travel to the trains...what are the smallest train kits available 1:144?? for tootling around the towers in the air.

ok. so finishes, all those years ago when i set the rules for the track i said monochrome....i´d like to adjust that to tones of white AND natural materials...i´m realy liking the corten style rusted steel architecture and i have a load of brass tube that will be great for pipelines, i really don´t like painting these more ´noble materials´, and they combine well with the grey white tones and make it look more real and more abstract at the same time?????

please feel free the photo sketch a feasible track on the last foto there, (THATs why i took it...as you know if it were left to me the track would be almost undrivable, so welcome some feedback

cheers big ears sig

 

[sig]

cheers guys...what d´ya think of this??

 

[sig]

hiya!

wow, nothings even been glued yet and people are liking it , good sign!

thanks for all the ace comments, its what its all about
ember, yep i could probably do it on my own but wheres the fun in that, i class this as a group effort, same as the other 2

i checked out trains, and i´ll probably go for 1:160 (some random letter!) for price reasons, i found some stuff for less than 100 dollars, the smañlñler stuff is massively expensive (and ....err you can´t see it!!

)

mr dog and bluey..blade runner will be watched again at some point this weekend... i was going to start experimenting with the tower lighting the other day but have to figure out the best way to cut small squares in pvc first, lighting is really important and as you and rally p point out. if its done well you have 2 tracks for the price of 1 (day and night) (not that this has cost anything at all so far!)

the digital idea is great, but scares me to death..i don´t really understand it..never seen it and its a bit like a dark magic to me. however!.....i love the idea of some kind of flipper than sends you into the pit or not...maybe it could be independant..a foot switch...you spin round the gantry. foot switch, wham you down into the intestines of the city, a bit like putting distortion on the guitar solo!

which brings me to davoq and ember2---the city underbelly....instead of raising it (remember it mostly steel and will weigh)i´m thinking of opening out its foundations for use., i already said i want to continue the curve of the dome down, and so instead of making a blown up pit , why not show off the meat and bones of the city. the massive tubes suck nutrients from the ground. the ground offers the fuel for the life above, so lets use the underground for more than a passing tunnel ride. lots of sci fi films sink into the depths of the city for the working class ghettos, i think this is our chance. the fibreglass base itself is well built with wooden trusses keeping the parts together, it could be modelled at 1:40 ish so that the cars can spend a while down there without bothering the eye, . a bit uncomfortable for deslots as it is just above ground level but hey!, and will be great for cool lighting ...and smoke!

so minidora and dead pedal, suspended is a must, definately for the train, up high, but i love doing bridges and metal structures so either within the pits or out side at the rocket level, something will have to happen.....

sounds like we´re moving to this flipper switch situation...flip and you go underground, no flip and its a surface track...could be cool...

by the way. the cheapy trains at 1:160 are mostly old american goods trains....i´ve found a missile carrier, but no cityslicker commute stuff.. any one seen anything cheap at that scale??...amtrack doesnt really cut it swinging around at 100m altitude

again thanks for the motivation...this is a group effort, i´m just doing the spade work!

sig

 

[sig]

ember, love those little figures, a defo must, and yes i have my doubts about train guys too!

ok so me pedal, would it be possible to link a scaley flipper section (curved) to a remote button, without needing the expensive, controlers, power pack and digi cars...just the flipper section and a switch?? if so i´ll go for it

in the meantime the bowels have been dug out, the original structure of the base is well made and we can incorporate it into the idea, i´ve taken the domes down into the ground and put my lamp down there to help with the ambience....obviously all mocked up at the mo, but we can start to see the possibilities i think....bridges and tubes all over

you can see in the last 1 the 1:32 is 50cm from the 1:160 ish base of the towers but because at the moment the buildings are very neutral, we can get away with it....needs very clever use of architectural detailing methinks

wot d ya reckon?

 

[sig]

is that the forth bridge ember?, if so i heard they´ve got to dismantle it!...its too rusty

anyway found this and thought of you

mr zook, yep except the junk yard would appear to be my house!

 

[sig]

theres also these

boston holland and porto

or then we could go all calatrava also, i´m a big fan too