Thursday 30 September 2010

Deux voitures

I've never been a big fan of French cars but there has always been two I've had a soft spot for.  The first of these is the Citroen DS.  Even now, the "goddess" looks like it's just landed from another planet.

This SCX model is the Citroen DS 21 that won the Rally Monte Carlo in 1966.  However it "won" on a technicality - and this story won't endear the French to you.  The first four cars to cross the finishing line were all British - Timo Makinen (Finland) driving a Mini-Cooper, followed by Roger Clark in a Ford Lotus Cortina, then Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk, both also driving Minis.  But they were all ruled out of the prizes - with six other British cars for alleged infringements of complex regulations about the way their headlights dipped - after a protest by the Citroën team manager.

To his credit, the driver Pauli Toivonen did not brag about his victory because he felt he had not deserved it. However, when his son, Henri came first the same event twenty years later - this time in a convincing manner - Pauli was heard to say: "Now the name of Toivonen has been cleared."  (Sources: BBC, Wikipedia)

The second car is the Renault Alpine 110 which came first in the 1973 Tour De Corse (Corsica).  A lovely little model with lots of detail and decals.


These are two more of the cars I bought last Sunday.  Halfway through the reveal now...

Sunday 26 September 2010

Toy Fair

Andy and I went up to the NEC today for a Toy Collectors Fair.  600 stalls of toys, trains and cars.  Several "I used to have one of those" moments, plus a few "and I wish I'd kept it now I see what it's being sold for!".  I filled my rucksack with slot cars but I'll spread out blogging about them.  Here's the first purchase:



Another MAN TR1400 truck to race against the silver one I bought about 8 weeks ago.  These trucks are really detailed and are lots of fun to race.  Especially now I've got two of them.

Sunday 19 September 2010

100 adverts

I've replaced the remaining red and white crash barriers with modern silver ones, so the entire circuit is now edged with silver barriers that give just that extra bit of width of clearance for wider cars and trucks.  I also printed out 100 adverts onto self-adhesive paper and stuck them onto every visible face of the barriers around the circuit.


You might have spotted in the photo that the background scenic view has gone.  It had started to ripple a little bit from the damp in the loft after the rain the week before last, so it is now being plastic laminated.  Should be back in place later this week.

Tuesday 14 September 2010

Track Detailing

As well as yesterday's toilet block, I also added a few more details to the track last night:

A chequered start grid


A yellow-lined box to indicate where to stop for refuelling


A servicing canopy for the rally cars I have parked on the layout


A satellite transmitter for BBC live coverage of my races


And lastly, and most importantly, I replaced a flag on each of the grandstands with the Maltese flag.


Not one of the original nationalities in the Scalextric pack but particularly appropriate given Herman's input to the lap detection setup.  You can also see in this photo that I've painted the MDF border as a breeze-block wall.

Monday 13 September 2010

Jenson Button in ladies loo shocker

"How do you feel about your Number Two at Monza?", asks Martin Brundle.


Mercedes McLaren

The Scalextric Club Car for 2010 arrived today - the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 GT.


The "722" refers to the victory by Stirling Moss in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR with the starting number 722 (indicating a start time of 7:22 a.m.) at the Mille Miglia in 1955.  This model is highly detailed (unfortunately not with the gull-wing doors of the real thing) but I fear that rear spoiler isn't going to last long...


Saturday 11 September 2010

Muffler Love

Stuart came up today for a few hours of Scalextric and Playstation.  He has almost mastered the Sampson Chicane but still has his own unique parking style...


...and coming in for the pits (the red sensor in shot), prefers to park over the poor mechanic and tear out the Armco barrier...


Since his Plymouth Roadrunner police car was chasing the Duke boys in the General Lee at the time, we think he may have run over Cooter...


Sadly, despite all this, he still beats me!

Monday 6 September 2010

Race Night

Andy came round for the first race night with the completed scenery.  We raced a number of vehicles but two are worth a special mention.  The first is a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro that I bought for Andy six or seven years ago.  He'd been promising to bring it round once the track was sufficiently complete to race against the Ford Boss Mustang I'd bought at the same time.


As we positioned the cars on the start line, I noticed Andy's blue Camaro was missing half a bumper - and I recognised it.  I found the missing piece in my little box of bits I find on the track after races!  So clearly it has raced on the Highwood Circuit before.

We also had huge fun racing the little BMW 2002s which slide all over the place but rarely de-slot.  This was also the first race night with 100% reliable lap timing and fuel management.  Having to stop at the right point to refuel certainly added to the challenge.

Sunday 5 September 2010

NSCC vs Scalextric Club


My first blog posting was on 17 September last year so I've spent just under a year on this project.  On that day, I'd just received my Scalextric Club pack.  I've recently renewed and should have the 2010 Club Car shortly, but I've also joined a different club.


The NSCC was originally the National Scalextric Collectors Club but is now about all makes of slot car.  The subscription costs about the same as the Scalextric Club.  The latter gives you a free car each year but the quarterly magazine is basically a set of Scalextric adverts.  The NSCC does sell a special car each year but the reason for joining is their excellent monthly magazine which reviews new models from all the slot car manufacturers as well as other related articles.

Both worth joining for different reasons I think.

And this is probably a first (and last?) - slot car comedy clips.  A year old now but there are a series of clips on YouTube called Slotcar 2009 which made me snigger.


The Finishing Touch?

Ok, it'll never really be completely finished - there will always be little things to do (or repair) like adding spectators and the first aid hut (if I ever find it - I bought it back in January and it must be somewhere...).

But nevertheless, I am going to declare the layout finished today as there are now no more major pieces of scenery to do.  The final piece was a 20 feet x 15 inches panoramic view of hills installed along the two long sides of the layout.


A few companies sell these for model railway layouts but this was the only one I found that was 15 inches, and so high enough to give good clearance above the elevated track.  Here are some photos closer in:

The control tower and helipad


The pit garages


Folly Corner


I'm really pleased with how these look - well worth the effort in cutting to size, mounting to cardboard and fitting around the layout.  Although I'm not in a hurry to crawl under the table and squeeze up in the small gap at the far corner again any time soon...



Thursday 2 September 2010

Goodyear Blimp

I thought a Goodyear Blimp flying over the track would be a good addition.  When I started looking, I soon came across a Revell plastic kit that was sold in the US during the mid-Seventies.


As you can see from the box, this kit replicates the lighted message board on the side of the blimp, as in this real photo...


I found a kit in reasonable condition on eBay and had it shipped over from the US.  For a thirty five year old plastic kit, it was in pretty good shape but the mechanism is rather primitive.


Inside the model is a motor driving a cylinder around three bulbs...


The cylinder is loaded with a loop of paper with a dot matrix pattern - white on the side you can see in the photo but in different colours on the outside.  This scrolls around when the motor is switched on to make it look like a moving lighting display.

This is a bit dark but here's my video of how it looks in operation (link).



As well as this pattern, the kit comes with another couple plus a load of blank rolls and a set of felt-tips (I wonder if they still work?) so that you can make up your own designs.  No doubt a specific message for the Highwood Circuit will be coming soon...