Take the scenic route (part two)

I sprayed and dry-brushed the rock walls and re-installed all the pieces today.

A big improvement on the temporary grass paper solution.

I also recently finished off a few more figures, some drivers and pitcrew - with an important message for racers approaching the last corner ;-)

...and some more spectators and another programme seller.

I still have a dozen unpainted figures but only a little bit of space left now on the layout.  I'll squeeze them in somewhere and then stop.  Possibly.

Take the scenic route (part one)

The far side of the track has various elevations and constructing scenery around the different levels was always going to be complicated.  So I cheated with a roll of grass which I just used to cover the gaps:

It's been like this for a couple of years although I did replace some of the grass paper when I built the big screen, but the rock wall wasn't very convincing.

So my Bank Holiday project was to build some proper rock walls using some pieces of insulation foam I liberated from a neighbour's skip over a year ago (I knew it would come in handy eventually...).

It's a nice material to work with, much easier than the chicken wire and plaster method I used for other parts of the track.  I used a normal saw to roughly cut the pieces and then shaped and added detail with a dremel (rotary hand-tool).  It does make one hell of a mess though.  And I lost count of the trips between the garage and the loft today.

But the end result is a significant improvement.  This is the first piece I did between the two hairpins:

And then I got carried away and ripped out the paper mache rocks I'd created behind the big screen, and shaped pieces for the whole stretch.  As the rock wall acts as a natural barrier, I was able to remove a lot of the armco barriers.

Next job is to paint it and to re-grass & re-plant around the big screen.

Racing Seats

Racing standing up takes a toll after an hour or two, so from now on we'll be racing in comfort - following the purchase of a pair of padded height-adjustable bar stools.  Seat belts not included.

Tiny Twin Cams

Andy bought me a couple of Austin 7 Twin Cam kits from George Turner models for my birthday.  GT makes high quality resin bodies with chassis, and Andy sourced all the additional bits I needed to construct the car.

I primed the drivers, cars and others parts in white, grey and black respectively, with the exhausts in different colours to contrast with the body paintwork.

Painted up and partly constructed:

The car doesn't have a separate chassis - instead the motor and rear axle clips into the body, with the front axle and guide the only thing screwed into the body.

A few photos of the finished cars - number 5 in red with black exhaust, number 6 in green with white exhaust - all snapped in the latest gadget from Louise's parents - a photo light box:

Here's a final photo to show just how small these cars are, dwarfed by the NASCAR racers on the track:

Andy came round for an afternoon of racing today.  Lots of close races, including this spectacular finish, where Andy (driving as Steve McQueen) drove into the finish post and bounced back, but I lost control of the baddies' car too and rolled over both the detectors - fortunately over mine a fraction of a second before Andy's.

But the final accolade goes to Andy who got a new fastest lap for the circuit (under seven seconds).

Racing with Stuart

Some good racing sessions with Stuart today - some very close finishes....

...and some where Stuart drove into the start-finish pole instead of crossing the line...

There was excitement for both spectators and pit crews in most races...

In completely unrelated activity ;-) I also spent an hour or so going through my collection of bits that have come off cars over the last couple of years (lights, bumpers, wing mirrors).  Glueing them back on didn't take long but searching through my collection to see which cars had parts were missing did.  I need to do this more frequently.

Ford Transit Mk1

Andy bought me a Ford Transit kit from Pendle Slot Racing for Christmas and I've finally put the finishing touches to it this morning.

The resin bodyshell has been extremely well cast and unusually the kit also has a resin interior and resin chassis.  The parts went together perfectly.  The bodyshell was primed in grey and then sprayed gloss white around the middle of the van.

The middle band of the bodyshell and the radiator were then masked off before spraying the rest of the van in British racing green.

The wipers, lights and bumpers were then hand-painted before applying a few coats of lacquer.

The painted interior and driver were then fitted, along with the rest of the chassis and wheels.

Add a number plate and it's almost finished...

The final step was something new for my cars - home-made decals.  I've previously made number plates by printing onto adhesive white paper but that would be too thick for decals.  This time, I bought waterslide transfer paper suitable for inkjet printers and made up a transfer for each side of the van.  After printing, the transfer has to be lacquered a few times or else the ink will run as soon as the transfer is immersed in water.  Once it is dry, it can be applied just like a waterslide transfer from a commercial kit like Airfix.

Since the Transit is more of a workhorse than a racehorse, I thought that making it a maintenance van for my circuit would be an appropriate choice.

If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'

Louise gave me a couple of American racers for my birthday.  The Dodge Charger Daytona of 1969:

and the Plymouth Road Runner Superbird of 1970:

These large cars are plastered with sponsorship decals, and have the huge spoilers and aerodynamic noses of the NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) cars of the time.  On first testing, they drove very fast but with unrealistic "glued to the track" handling.  I took out the rear magnets so now the back ends swing out nicely on the corners.

The post title is an old NASCAR expression. Junior Johnson, one of the early superstars of NASCAR, said this about his approach when it came to building cars:

I'd have four of five new things on a car that might raise a question. But I'd always leave something that was outside of the regulations in a place where the inspectors could easily find it. They'd tell me it was illegal, I'd plead guilty, and they'd carry it away thinking they caught me. But they didn't check some other things that I thought were even more special.