Here is my track in Portland. Things I still plan on adding: Electronic timing, some trees at the saddle of the mountain and around the infield pond, tunnel portal entrances and exits...and whatever else I can think of.


Rich

Welcome to HT, Mr Bandits!

Thanks for sharing the pics of your track! It is looking really good! Tha pass between the mountains is a very slick idea, too. The over-all look says "fast but challenging".
Did I read it right? I know that what you have has been a whole lot of work so far, but keep up the great work! :thumbsup:

joez...a work in progress!

Looks like a fun track to run, especially around that mountain! :thumbsup: rr

Thanks for your comments, challenging for my family that's for sure. I uploaded the pictures on the photo section which allows higher resolution photos:

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/showphoto.php?photo=4718&sort=2&size=medium&cat=511&page=1

Nice job.I like layouts that have some scenery going on the best.I'm and old model rail roader at heart I guess.

Thanks for sharing.And welcome to the board!!

Mike

Looks like the track in the Mobil oil commercial!!! :thumbsup:

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I too like the elevation changes. Adds so much realism to a track. Very nice!

Your killin' me man

That looks awesome!

Kids and i are designing a 4 lane 5' x 14' track with scenery, 2 lane country road and train track.

Great job...i'm jealous

Jason

ROFL

I want to know how you get that white convertible to run on the track? Don't you have nerfing problems? :)

I love the elevation change......I wish our 21st century track had some!



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www.SlotCarJohnnies.com

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Sorry I haven't responded already but I gotta say thats a real nice looking track. I'm working on my own right now, so I can truly appreciate the effort you've put into this. (if there was an applause icon, I'd use it here. I'll settle for :thumbsup: )

SO would ya mind letting us in on some of your methods? I'm particualrly interested in what you used for grass. Is it grass mat or one of those velour sheets? What types of green paint did you use? Howd ya make the pit row? And that kid... is that scratchbuilt?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Great job.
Trev

Thanks for the interest Trev. Methods:

The table is an old 6' banquet table. I bought some 5/8" 4' x 8' sheets of pressed board, had home depot cut them to 5' x 4' and then screwed them down to the banquet table to make a 8 x 5 table. I screwed some 1" x 1" blocking under the table at the edges every so often, then screwed some molding around the outside of the table screwing into the blocking. I rolled on some forest green paint and drilled some holes for the power (wall warts) and controllers (still factory). Most of the rolled on paint is covered up at this point.

I laid out the track. I bought an afx super international and 4 way split on e bay for about $110 a piece. I used the 4 way challenge layout from http://www.hoslotcarracing.com/

I then raced my cars on it for about 6 weeks. Then the kids started nagging me about the mountain, tunnel and lake I had promised to build with the track.

To build the mountain I followed the steps I found at http://www.modeltrain.com/tutor/

Basically I bought some 2" and 1" styrofoam board at home depot, Layed out some newspaper on the track, traced the outline of the mountain I wanted on the newspaper, removed the track from the table, rough cut the styrofoam with an electric knife using the newspaper as a template, then glued the styrofoam togather in lifts.

When I got to the elevation of the track I got some of my left over 5/8" pressed board and with a jig saw cut the switch back shape of the track. That way the switch back up and down portion of the track would be fully supported, but the support wouldn't be visible.

I placed the pressed board switchback support on top of the styrofoam, and then resumed gluing styrofoam layers, including the tunnel, and mountain. Once all the layers were glued togather I started carving with the electric knife again to make the final shapes.

I painted the styrofoam purple (with black mixed in) where I wanted the mountain to look like rock, I then went down to the model train store.


Got to go pickup one of my kids, will continue this later.



Rich

Continuing on with the mountain, I painted the rest of the mountain forest green, except for the peaks, which I left alone and kept white. I then used a spray on modeling (woodland scenics) glue and placed woodland scenics coarse and fine turf on the mountain, and used woodland scenics snow on the peaks. HUGE WARNING. I ran out of glue during this process and did not put enough overspray on so the turf comes loose when the kids rub it. This stuff gets in the cars! I still need to get down to the model train store and buy more glue and spray the hell out of the mountain and infield to make sure that stuff is set. I'm now sure this will be a continuing problem.

For the infield and pavement areas I used 1/4in foam board purchased at the office depot. I would put the sheets down, trace the outline of the track on them and then cut the foam board to fit. I painted the infield forest green and the pavement with mattte black spray paint. I then carved out the ponds in the foam board, painting the bottom of the pond light blue, dark blue and black to represent depth (the model site says use browns but I didn't want mud ponds). I then filled up the ponds with woodland scenics realistic water. WARNING the realistic water bowed up the foam board. I glued the foam down to the table and this solved that problem. I then glued on some more woodland scenics fine and course turf to the infield.

The fisa aprons are more foam board, cut to fit, masked off and painted red, then pulled the masking off and glued down to table. WARNING masking tape will tear the foam board paper. To solve this I cut the paper with an exacto knife before I pulled the tape off. I glued the curbing down and this holds the track in place in the corners.

The pits are "winners circle" pit row series. I buy these on e bay for $4 to $8 apiece. I think they only made them in 1998, someone else here might know for sure. They have a connection piece that allows you to snap a series of them togather and they match in almost exactly in elevation to Tomy track.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=765&item=6955445750&rd=1 (http://www.qksrv.net/click-1606754-5463217?loc=http%3A//cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D6955445750)


The garage is made of 1/4 inch foam board cut and glued. I put some homemade decals on the sides and top. You can make decals on your inkjet printer if you buy decal paper. I borrow gifs and jpgs off the internet then print them out on the waterslide decal paper. Just type in waterslide decal paper into google and a bunch of sites will come up, I can't remember where I bought mine.

I've also bought some nascar luxury rides and car transporters on e bay for additional scenery.

Rich

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Well thank you Black Bandits for the great tutorial. I and I'm sure many others, appreciate the effort to type all that out for us. I'm gonna save it on my hard drive.

My track is getting there. The track is painted a pretty realistic shade of grey, and I've just recently cut and trimmed some hardboard so the tabletop is now flush with the track. Now its ready for paint. I may add a few small mounds of earth, but my table's smaller than yours...not much space for mountains. But there will be some green areas and thats why I was wondering about the shades of green that you used, primarily on the flat spots. By the way those red and white curb aprons look great!

Thanks again
Trev

Big time appreciated the push in the right direction. My son and I have limited room right now so we're using a 3.25' x 6' surface for now. As soon as we can locate enough room for a 4x8 we're going to extend our current setup and add scenery. After seeing the elevation in yours, I am sure we'll give something like that a try. Quite a neat looking setup you have! Thank you for sharing!

-Sean

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