Well Mountain Rally/Sprint, my first permanent build

Well, being unable to sleep last night I did a litle photo tutorial on the hanging type of tree.
Hope it can be of some use

1. The ingrediences for the Hanging tree:


2. Cut the hemp rope into 6 pieces of varying length, don't think too much about the order or length of each individual piece of string:


3. Twist the steel string around the stringbundle from the root and up (Remember to leave som roots, i forgot on the prototype):
(btw. sorry about the state of my hands but I had just been painting


4. I decided to make 3 main branches on this one:


5. Wire up the other branches, make it look random rather than nice and need, nature are very much like fractals


6. Next I start to split up each individual branch into additional branches, all fine hanging string:


7. Allmost there:


Done & ready for paint and MDF dust:


From another angle, all done in half an hour including the photography:


If you leave it for a couple of days, and only use it to spank SWMBO, the fine pieces of hanging string will straigten out a bit more
I'll return with a tutorial that shows how I paint and dust my trees.

Until then here is how I've done my other trees and what type of rope used:

Sissal rope (I'm not sure about the name, In Denmark we use it to tie up haybales):
Deffinitly one of the fastes trees to make


Hemp Rope tree: takes a litle longer since you have to split the rope up into the fibers yourself:
Makes very nice fluffy trees:


Nylon rope tree:


Nylon rope tree 2:


Of course you can allso do combinations of the different stringtypes, allso to simulate thinner and thinner branches towards the top:

Here is a batch of trees ready for the ratle cans and MDF dust:


In the summer I did a litle experiment with some flowers from the garden aswell, and I think that they can go as bushes, how about you ?:


And from the other side:


Thanks for watching

Thanks PSRRFH, that explains it perfectly!
When you were talking about the string I thought it was just the leaves!

QUOTE If you leave it for a couple of days, and only use it to spank SWMBO, the fine pieces of hanging string will straigten out a bit more
When do we get that 'How To'?

Thanks PSRRFH!!!

QUOTE (knoath @ 14 Oct 2008, 10:42) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>When do we get that 'How To'?

Thanks PSRRFH!!!

Well since we probably do have children here I'll keep those images to myself, I will tell you though that if you do you'll be shure to spice up your and your missus dailly life, and you can justifye to spend more time in the slot/gimp room to come up with new contraptions.
Bring back that smile on the girls face. ;-)

Now imagine what you could do with some copper trees and a power supply :-o

Glad you could use it, and happy racing.

Had a couple of sparemoments this evening, and I added Crepe paper to the stem of the big tree:


And to the other one that I did last night:


Together:


And to theese 3 babies


I'll add foilage to theese later on when I paint the string parts.
and also I'll paint the stems a litle or weather them, as I thing the whiz kidz call it.

Goodnight and sleep tighty

Hi there. This is developing into a really interesting thread on a very imaginative track. The new approach on trees has been really inspiring and I am soaking all this up ready to do the forest section of my valley. Thanks. Crepe paper is a brilliant idea for texturing tree trunks.

I read back through the whole thread and picked up on this...

QUOTE (PSRRFH @ 29 Sep 2008, 18:28) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>and ofcourse I'm gonna attempt to do a waterfall which are gonna span the goodwood pass and fall all the way through the 2 sections.... hopefully real running water

Comments & suggestions are welcome

MDF is notorious at absorbing humidity, let alone water. You need to seal it all over first, and I mean the whole thing not just the waterfall area (it may be too late to do that now). My brother made a sign for the shop we had back in the early nineties. He projected the letters onto a sheet of MDF and drew round them. Then cut them out with a jigsaw and sealed them with several coats of a product called sanding sealer (not sure who made it). Then he sprayed them up and fitted them to the shop façade. There was no sign of any damage even though they were exposed to heavy rain and the shop was next door to a river. Top job from Simon, who was a professional model-maker.

QUOTE (Graham Lane @ 15 Oct 2008, 03:51) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>MDF is notorious at absorbing humidity, let alone water. You need to seal it all over first, and I mean the whole thing not just the waterfall area (it may be too late to do that now). My brother made a sign for the shop we had back in the early nineties. He projected the letters onto a sheet of MDF and drew round them. Then cut them out with a jigsaw and sealed them with several coats of a product called sanding sealer (not sure who made it). Then he sprayed them up and fitted them to the shop façade. There was no sign of any damage even though they were exposed to heavy rain and the shop was next door to a river. Top job from Simon, who was a professional model-maker.

Thanks for the warning Graham, I'm aware of this and, that luke Skywalker side of me is saying "Don't do it, it's only for flash, and it's only gonna cause sorrow and grief" whereas the devil inside keeps screamin "Go for it, it'll be totally rad", so as you can hear I'm having quite an inner batle over this

Luckily it can still be paint sealed and prepared for water, but we'll just wait and see.

On another note I pretty much finished yesterdays batch of trees, so here you go "Mangrove Corner".


yada


Yada yada


Yoda


Someones lurking ?


overview


I can't control my self


Somebody give that man a straight jacket..... ahhhhhh another one


I promisse to behave now and don't post anymore images until I've finished welding section 2
until then...... see ya

Very interesting and clearly explained !!
Surely I'm going to try this way for the trees (once all the rest will be finished )

QUOTE (MarcoC @ 15 Oct 2008, 19:18) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Very interesting and clearly explained !!
Surely I'm going to try this way for the trees (once all the rest will be finished )

thanks alot MarcoC, do you have a track that we can see ?

QUOTE (Graham Lane @ 15 Oct 2008, 19:20) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>OMG someone else with that gorgeous Slot.it Alfa! It's on my Christmas list. Just don't you guys go buying up all the stock!

That alfa, should be voted most beutifull slotcar of the year, I would buy more of them if I could afford it.
My son had a hard time understanding why I wouldn't let him run it when he one day caught a glimse of it, this one I pack away and don't let kids run, otherwise I usually don't care,.
If it breaks it breaks, but not this baby I'm gonna cry when that mirror eventually breaks off

Fantastic - very entertaining and inspirational

Hello PSRRFH!

Now you have really got further! Great job!! The pine tree is perfect and I changed my mind about what I said. I´m not going to buy any cheap plastic christmas tree anymore!! Nylon rope rules now! never thought about it, it´s just perfect for the mountainous part of my track! A big spool of synthetic rope is on the way!
Thank you!

Well time for an update

@Nigel thanks alot I'm glad you like it, could you please give me a simple explanation of the word "abundance" ?

@ L.cerante - thanks alot I'm sure yours will be much better, for inspiration go to the track sceenery index and check out rallyHubs trioTrack & his wiretress for the sweedish rally;-o and the now disasembled track from Demether, now here are people that know what they are doing, whereas I'm pretty much just tagging along improvising.
Btw. when will you reveal your toilet paper powder technic, (do you just dip a whole role in a bucket of paint, let it dry and then crumble it into powder ?

I'm done welding track pieces together into track sections, heres an image of the last 3 sections:


Heres a close up, all the small jumper cables has been hot glued into small slots that I cut.

If you wanna do this avoid the classic track from the 80ties, as they have small cradles around all the metal pieces that you have to cut off to get the track level and flat:

I've allso done a couple of new trees & a dead one aswell


The dead one:


And a close up of the foilage:


Hmmm thx for watching, I'll be in the garage mounting the track sections if you guys need me :-o

Chuppy Chup in a cup,

@ rallyP - thankiew Rally Maestro, if you should ever visit Denmark for some reason Please stop by.

QUOTE (Billy_Cart @ 29 Oct 2008, 15:23) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Great effort PSRRFH,

Trees are sensational & the video is great I have never really thought of hill climb tracks but this looks like heaps of fun.

Can 2 cars race each other on this type of track? I'd like to see that.

Cheers

Phil

thx Phil.

Well the plan is this:
1. to have different rally modules that can be combined in different ways
2. have singleplayer 1lane, singleplayer with a laneswitch loop(you get a run to the top in both lanes), 2player mode(like a normal track) Thats why the loop at the top of the mountain can be taken out, and so will the one at the buttom.
3. include it into a digital setup like yours as an area that you can enter (I have got a vision of maby 4 different tracks that can be combined into a huge one This will include modded lanechange pieces, and is far away.

the video is of the singleplayer 1lane and I'll have to learn how to do a deadstrip detection and switch the direction of the electricity before I can use this:

laneSwitchLoop Entrance:


laneSwitchLoop Exit:


Sceenery wise this loop is hopefully gonna turn into a litle village with a townsquare(circle).

It apears to me that rally and raid slotracing is really big in Spain and it is allso treatet as an social event where one will be driving for the fastest lap while the others are watching/Marshalling/cheering/drinking/having fun
so this build is very inspired by that(Tons of videos on Youtube)
Allso I've been Learking around on this forum for about a year and after a while all theese awesome and jawdropping sceenery masterpieces(Non mentioned non forgotten) get to you, and I just had to have a go at it I've never tried it before and since I'm Primarily a Rug Racer, it'll probably take quite some time.

thanks for watching.

Today i went to the paintshop, with these variations on the "twistet pinetree"


and created this type of tree:


and then I added this into the equation:


and came up with this type:


This type:


and This:


Here's one for size reference:


And another:


And here is what you get for the prize of 4 ratle cans, some twist, thin wire, sawdust, and 4 hours of work.
8 foilage trees
7 pine trees
prize 12-15 UK Pounds


Cheers, comments and questions are appreciated

Hallo and happy greetings to all
So inbetween pestering people with the:
2009 walpaper contest : Pay homage to the PowerBase PRO Team

I did a litle work on my track.(And I failed miserably) :-(
I have a couple of bridges and for one of them I'm gonna make this combined Brickwall/Couplestone wall

Initial Idea:


The construction will be removeable so that I can hide some stuff in there behind it.
I have been watching RallyHubs TrioTrack in awe and thought that I was gonna dremmel the different bricks and stones like he have done.(Now thats manic behaviour, if you ask me)

But then in the morning when I woke up, it suddenly struck me why dont you just cut some cardboardbricks and glue them on(Less noise and less dust) and quicker
and also I was thinking when the bricks would be soaked in glue, paint and grit they would develope different heights as of the cardboard splitting in half.

Bridge support with bricks some large and some small bricks


Well so far so good, It's a pretty fast and easy way to get some bricks, and since this constructure is gonna resemble very old and deteriated stones, size is not that important.

But I'm an Impatient MF, so I couldnt wait for the glue to dry, and thats where it started to go wrong:-8 :-(
So I just continnued with some coppled stones which turned out to be more like slices of bannana:-o
When that innervoice says stop (I should have listened)

Where it went all wrong !!!


I have a new and much better way to do the coppel stones, but I'll have to wait for the week-end to try it out :-(

Well anyways, after adding the the banana chips I went to the garage and gave it a quickie with some black and red spraypaint:

Sponge close up:


Depending on how much sponge texturing you give it you can actually get some very nice different type of bricks burned or glazed depending on how you wan't them.

In the end I ended with this:Which looks ok really close
The general idea is there however it leaves a lot to be desired still when it comes to the coppel stones :-(
wall Close up:


Because from a litle distance it pretty much looks likke something from warhammer where some drunk goblins passed by and wommitted at the foot of the hills.

Final Nightmare:


So to summarize this, to do sceenery you have to be a patience litle bastard allways letting the glue dry before the next step.
Grump Grump Grump.

Chuppy chup

QUOTE (PSRRFH @ 28 Oct 2008, 11:25) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Btw. when will you reveal your toilet paper powder technic, (do you just dip a whole role in a bucket of paint, let it dry and then crumble it into powder ?

Hello PSRRFH!

It is almost that! There´s no secret at all. First you should dye the paper with dye powder, those used to dye clothes, (buy different shades of green and brown) then grind it all in a liquidizer (hide from your wife to do this) and left it dry (which can take long). Use a soft paper to do this (!) those cheap and rough toilet papers won´t suit well I think...just the way it doesn´t suit well to attend the call of nature!

I´ll publish it when I get on the scenery of my track. Keep up your job!
cheers, mate!
Leonardo

p.s. loved your trees once again!!