Petit Spa

Thanks once again for all the positive words:

@ Mampara: No I don't have a assambly line! Nut I allready made my buildings before I made the whole track. For example it took me about three weeks to make the pit-tower like it looks today. If you have a layout, please make some scenery, it adds so much to your track.

@ Astro: the buildings are lit by cutting up cheap christmas tree lights. I lengthen the wires to fit perfectly between the lights in the buildings. There are only two buildings lit, but they will all be lit soon. The atmosphere is superb when driving in the dark this way. I don't like lights next to the track very much, it's just not realistic. And the light that comes out of these buildings illuminates the track around it... and the effect is increddible.

In my beginning slotracer adventures, I just raced with one friend. Last racing night, there were six guys racing Petit Spa with real competition between them. They all thought I was crazy first, but it was superb to see them have so much fun at Petit Spa! We drove several 24 hour races (45 minutes) with 20 minutes darkness in it, with two drivers on each team! There was an absolute competitive racy atmosphere there. thery're hooked up now. They went to the slot shop this week, I'm curious for next monday (racing night)! Maybe I'll take some pictures of the sphere!

Greetz

Gunther

Photo's of last night:

View of the track: I begun with the trees in the center area, because afterwards it's hard to get there. The underground will be worked on with brown railroad stuff or small peat:


Center area with trees and camping site: the camping site will be more worked out, but I wanted to know where to put trees to keep the area open enough:


View of the hill you guys like so much in the backgroud:


New wall at the back of the pits, it really protects the pitbuilding: There will come tyrewall against that wall to protect the cars also:


Some sphere photo's:

People arriving at the track with their race cars on trailers:


The fireman finally came to the rescue for the crashed 355 in "Double Gauche":


BMW M3 GTR and a Marcos, ready for a night trainingsession:


Somebody spot an Enzo in the paddock!


I'll start building some more buildings now, and a "bridge" to cover the lightbridge of the timer. Then I'll work on the rest of the greenery!

Greetz from Belgium!

Gunther

Some race night pics of monday @ Petit Spa:

We had two 24hour races(45 min, 12.5 mins lights on, 20 mins dark, and 12.5 mins lights on) , one with modern GT's and one with sixties Le Mans cars. With two teams of two... We have a point system that the leader at 100 laps and the leader at 200 laps gets points, and the race winner. We count the results together after the two races, and we add up number of laps from the two races. The two teams had both 8 points at the end of the night and after one hour-and-a-half of racing there were three laps difference between the two cars! There was a mega competitive sphere in the garage!







Cheers

Gunther

@ Mike: I think I started with Petit Spa about two months ago... but I think I'll work on it till the end of the year to get it finished.

Update pictures:

First of all, the sandboxes (for more info check this topic): I vacuumed the sand away, and I got this result: The sand made the paint look very natural with the bumps in the foam. I was pleased with this result, so I did the other sandboxes the same way. There are a few grains of sand left in the paintwork, but it's not enough to harm the bodies of the cars.





The rest of this weekend's work:

Worked on the greenery in the direction of Stavelot, the trees in the foam come on their permanent places this week.


These workers are ready to start the fencework. They're waiting on the guy with the rest of the fence poles. You clearly see the irritation on the face of the guy with the red cap.


Finally... there he is!


If they want to get something done this weekend, they'd better start right away! The first poles are allready standing (the poles are 14cm long nails where I took the sharp point off, put upside down through a drilled hole):


I must say... I'm very pleased with the result:


It's a lot safer in the paddock now:


The fence in front of the grandstand, placed not directly after the wall, like on the real Spa Francorchamps:




The glue of fence at "Double Gauche" still drying:


Some overview pics:




Backside of the grandstand, where there will be a few stands with food, miniatures, and stuff when the race season starts... The ground is also done with my sand in paint technique. But here I left more sand on the table, it can't harm any cars here...


Hope you won't shoot me for posting all those pics every time, but I allways have a good time taking them, so I want to share them with you...

Greetz

Gunther

@ Jan: Well, there is a little trick to it! Campers have to be early at the track, the only way to get to the campside is over the track. So campers have two free laps on the track if they come for a race-weekend... I would sign for it, if I went to Spa Francorchamps for the 24 hours!

And euh... about getting your coat? Coming this way?

@ Larsson: Well, that fence is in fact just ordinary grey musquito aluminium screen (or how do you call it in english?). It's cheap and available in every DIY shop!

Another camper, I found a VW T1 in 1:32 in the same version and color scheme that I married in three months ago. I coulnd't resist it...


Greetz

Gunther

@ Sacesta:

Sandboxes: Yes indeed... I painted the areas, poured sand over it... left it to dry a night, and vacuumd the sand away... the sand left a very natural print in the paint!

Fences: Yep, I glue them to the posts... with strong clear "contact glue", I must say... it works really well, I also thought about it to ty them to the posts, but I tried it out and it's harder to do... en I think the result is messier... (I allways try everything out before using it on the track)

Dunlop Bridge: It's a Jouef bridge, it's a really old one, I have the original box from it too. I bouhgt it at a slotrace expo in the begining stage of my slotrace hobby. It would span four lanes, but I think it would be a little low over the track at the outside lanes! I'll take a picture with two trackpieces next to eachother for you tonight!

Mmm... it's race night tonight... can't wait...

Cheers

Gunther

@ Slotrace DK:

Those are Ninco railgards... but they will be painted in aluminium color...
And the plain white pieces of the curbstones will be painted black too... like the road widens there...

But... everything at a time...

Racing night was a blast yesterday... We were with five and we first raced with Hot Hatches... the Alfa 147's... a Seat Leon and a VW Golf. 10 heats of 20 laps, so everybody had raced to the four others. It were allways very close races. The first three were within two points from eachother!

Afterwards we had a 24 hour teamrace (again 45 minutes, 12 minutes daytime, 21 minutes darkness, and again 12 minutes with garage the lights on, and a driver change every five minutes) with the Repsol Marcos and an Ninco M3 GTR... My opponents were faster in the qualification with the Fly Marcos. In the race they got points to get the first to 100 laps... we were 4 laps behind... during the night we took over the lead... We reached the cape of 200 laps first with our M3 with the Marcos six laps behind us... At sunrise the better driver of the Marcos took over again... and he took some time back... but he overdid himself and the car... in lap 258 the Marcos started to sound really wierd... they stopped in front of the pits... removed the body... and noticed that the cardan-spring of the marcos was torn open... So they had to give up if they didn't want to ruin the gearing... so race over for them...

I have a few pictures on the Digicam... but I don't know if they are worth it to show here... I''l check them tonight...

Greetz

Gunther

@ Mike: Thanks for the tip... too bad I don't have the ABmoteurs Chanel!
It sounds like an interesting chanel!

Well euhm... I have a few pictures here... from race night... I don't want to overload you, but taking pictures is also a hobby from me, and I'm still learning! And since you all like pictures too...

Most of them are real action pics, when you see cars on the track, they're really racing...

A few pics of a manche of the Hot Hatch Cup:

The most bautifull 147 ever! The white GTA... the only streetversion in the Hot Hatch Cup for the moment, will be replaced when the Tempo Team 147 will be released!)


The Ninco VW Golf... Drifting through the Bus-Stop:


This is about how far those two were from eachother during the whole race:


The Marcos during training for the 24 hours, just before going onto the Raidillon... Our blue M3 GTR seems to drive out of the pits at that moment, and there is still an 147 in the sandbox from the Hot Hatch Cup. Seeing that picture reminds me of making the bridge over the start/finish lightbridge, and filling the last piece with greenery.


A think this is a nice see-through... focussed on the Oreca Pitcrew... It's about time the walls get their advertising on them... Marcos again passing the camera:


ETCC Team trucks arriving in the paddock, (1/32 NewRay Scania Stralis)


Another see-through: Alfa techicians unloading the 156's...


(Even more pics at this SF topic... Damn... I'm really a sucker for pics, I just realised you'll all be bored with these long before Petit Spa is ever finished)

Cheers

Gunther

Some pictures:

I added more lights and some small buildings to the layout... in particular around the grandstand area.

The official program and timing stand (needs some more detaling, but took some pics anyway:


With the programs available (thanks for the idea Steve!!!)


Foodstand under the grandstand by night:


Close up:


Offical mercandise stand (mind the jackets on the rails!!!)


Grandstand by night (i think the ground-lightning gives a great effect)


Bottom floor of the VIP tower, the showroom, added lights... and the Ferrari 512 that drove the 24 hours of Spa in 1970:


Cheers

Gunther

QUOTE (fred42fr @ 5 Dec 2004, 23:01)Can you give me the height of the steps of your grandstand (I've just built mine and I'm afraid it is not scaled )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The hight of the steps is 1cm (0.39 inch...) each... and all the figures (Carrera, MRRC...) fit perfectly on them. Like Sacesta I also measured everything up, and then scaled everything down... (I do that with all the pieces I make, just to make it look as realistic as possible, hights of walls, doors...)

Thanks again for the kind words!
But looking closely at the pics... I realise that the stands need some more finishing up. Next projects are another foodstand, another merchandise stand, and a small building that is typical for the real Spa Francorchamps' La Source.

And when I find the time to do all this? Well... in between the housejobs (installing lights, assembling furniture, painting rooms...), office work... and social life...

I must say... that my social life is quite involved in my slotcar addiction... We had a party on friday with six couples to discuss what we are going to do on new years eve. Well I must say 4 of the 6 regular slotbuddies were there, and two newbies... The wifes discussed everything from booze till menus... and we raced team-endurances from nine till three in the morning... We had great fun... and... New Years Eve party is at our house this year... but... the wifes all said we coulnd't race that night )

Mmm... but tonight is real racing night... looking forward to it!

Cheers

Gunther