Hi Guys!
Been away for awhile. Finishing the hobby room, then summer and fall hunting seasons got in the way....however, have been lurking and trying to keep up with whats going on.

My son and I recently expanded the track from 41' to a 59.5' equal length layout with one overpass. Still have the banked corner at the end of the back straight. We're in the process of tweaking the chicanes, and getting the carousels right. The track drives pretty fast with x-tractions, but the chicanes and carousels make for some interesting sideways action and some quick slow-downs.

Once the layout is finalized, we're going to set up our elevations and get ready for landscaping, which raises my question.

I bought the model train landscaping book AFXtoo mentioned. Seems like a great reference. What are folks opinions on the plaster cloth vs. the great stuff approach to creating the base terrain? Is one easier than the other?Would appreciate any advice that could be offered.

Thanks,
Ed

-----

Looks great! Would love to make that run down the back straightaway into the banked turn. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: rr

Looks great! Would love to make that run down the back straightaway into the banked turn. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: rr

Ditto, RR.
StarTrek time travel comes to mind, with the colors breaking off the Klingon ship that Kirk swiped. "We'll just sling-shot around the sun and...." :thumbsup:

Break time....!

Working on the elevations right now. They certainly add another bit of challenge. I'm toying around with only about 6" of max elevation, and it doesn't seem like much, but it really changes the nature of the track. The chicane after the banked turn is downhill, and you really have to chop the throttle to keep from bringing the rear end around. Can't imagine what the Vargo speedway must be like to drive!

Got the elevations done on the back straight. The corner going into the straight is elevated 2.5" at 7.5 degrees banking, then falls back down to 1.25" for about 8', then rises up to 8" entering the bank. It doesn't sound like much, but it works better than I had hoped. At 1/64th scale, thats an elevation change of about 43'. The cars look pretty cool sliding around up there!

Time to call it a night.

Great looking track i like the elevations. is that a mulie in the background?

Track looks great. The elevation changes will look really cool when you do the landscaping.

I've been indifferent about using banked sections. They are good and bad. It would seem that you can fly through them faster than a flat corner due to the banking, but you lose magnetic downforce with each lane as the radius gets tighter inside the bank. In the lowest curve of the bank, the car will acually have a significant gap underneath it and loses virtually all downforce. It takes a quick trigger finger to blip the throttle through this or you will fish-tail as you enter the straight transition. I've actually considered going back to a flat corner with the natural bank acheived from the elevation.

Here's my banked section: -50 degrees! :p

http://www.planetofspeed.net/PhotoPost/data/3012/1PICT1149-med.JPG

Hey SlottV, do you have a picture of your full slot car track layout? your pic of tracks looks good and i would like to see the whole..

Wes

N8 - Yup, 3x3, 2004 from WY

SlottV - How did you make those "mountains" behind the banked turn?. Also, I noticed on your website, that you have a "brick" wall as you descend from the banked turn. How is that constructed? Your website is great. My son really likes the "Drive Vargo Speedway" section. Very creative track and website both!

Ed

Hey SlottV, do you have a picture of your full slot car track layout? your pic of tracks looks good and i would like to see the whole..

Wes

Don't know if it's still actual picture of it, but visit Scott website, his track is awesome...SEE HERE (http://www.supervipersystems.com/VargoSpeedway/About_Vargo_Speedway/TopSHot/topshot.html)

Don't know if it's still actual picture of it, but visit Scott website, his track is awesome...SEE HERE (http://www.supervipersystems.com/VargoSpeedway/About_Vargo_Speedway/TopSHot/topshot.html)

thanks zanda for the picture! wow!!

Wes

N8 - Yup, 3x3, 2004 from WY

SlottV - How did you make those "mountains" behind the banked turn?. Also, I noticed on your website, that you have a "brick" wall as you descend from the banked turn. How is that constructed? Your website is great. My son really likes the "Drive Vargo Speedway" section. Very creative track and website both!

Ed

The mountains were constructed in the "hard shell" technique described in one of the model railroad books; newspaper and masking tape base with a back profile shape. Then Woodland Scenics plaster cloth, some paint and some foam grass. That's really all it is. Once you get the technique down off you go! Anything that looks un-natural can be lopped off and reformed with more newspaper and plaster cloth. It's held up very well over the years.

The brick wall is just a large collection of embossed paper printed with bricks. I bought a whole box of it at a hobby shop years ago. Walthers may carry it.

Here are more photos and comments- mostly of the move 2 years ago and re-assembly last year (they're backwards in order). I hope to rebuild a lot of stuff on it this winter. The track is now 15 years old! Have already started the new extension and catch walls on the right side.

"The Move" (http://www.planetofspeed.net/PhotoPost/showgallery.php?cat=3010)

"Track Rebuild" (http://www.planetofspeed.net/PhotoPost/showgallery.php?cat=3012)

-later,
Scott

-----

Ya I remember those steps mentioned and I got lazy. If you look closely at my mountains you can see some texture of the plaster cloth showing through the paint. Kind of like a painted arm cast. :tongue: I think you're supposed to go over the plaster cloth with some wet plaster or a mix of paint, plaster and textured material to fill in holes in the cloth but I got impatient and just started painting. The plaster cloth does have some extra plaster you can mush around some thin areas when it's wet, but if you get the plaster cloth too wet you thin the plaster itself and some holes can start showing in the cloth itself. It doesn't show much in photographs but to the naked eye you can see some imperfections. :cool:

-Scott

And the best way to apply the texture to mountains is let gravity do its job!

-----

Thanks for all the great advice guys. However, at the pace I'm going, its going to be a few weeks before I get to any landscaping. Been busy putting down 1/4" birch inlay for an infield, and building up track borders, etc.

I've been taking a few photos to document progress, which for my son is painstakingly slow. Got a cool "driver's eye" photo from the bottom of the blind hill on the back straight leading into the banked curve. Thought you'd get a kick out of it.

Ed

-----