50 Years of Bondage

I've just bought another painting from Solly at SM Artworks who predominantly paints TV and film subjects.  Since it's fifty years since the first Bond film (and next year, it'll be sixty years since the first Bond novel), this painting is called "Legacy" and depicts three of Bond's Aston Martins - the DB5 from "Goldfinger" (and later films), the V8 Vantage Volante from "The Living Daylights", and the DBS V12 from "Casino Royale" (and trashed at the beginning of "Quantum of Solace").

And here it is in the slot room, pushing Starsky & Hutch round the corner of the chimney breast so that it can pair up with "Super Pursuit" (bought two years ago and featuring KITT, Airwolf and the A-Team van) on the other side of the race monitor.

And speaking of Starsky & Hutch, I managed to track down some flashing LED units for Starsky's Ford Gran Torino, and fitted one into the Plymouth Road Runner police car that I had previously wired in a Maplin flashing LED (which worked when static but stayed on when driving round the track).  The official Scalextric part does the trick.

Another Lotus

I don't have many models made by Ninco but their Lotus Exige model has always tempted me because (a)  the NSCC selected it as their Club Car in 2009, and (b) it's a Lotus.  And one of the online stores had it half-price last week so I grabbed one.  It looks delicate with the long mirror stalks and high spoiler, but the mirrors and the struts for the spoiler are rubber not plastic, so should provide some flexibility if/when the Lotus goes rolling at one of the tight bends.

This model has a fast anglewinder motor as you can see in the last picture - the motor is mounted on a slant and engages directly with a gear next to the right rear wheel.  A great little car.

1960s Formula 1 cars

These were my birthday present from Louise -  Formula 1 cars from the late sixties.

A sunny Kyalami hosted the 1968 South African Formula 1 Grand Prix, the opening race of the season on 1st January.  Jim Clark won the race from pole position, confirming the strength of Colin Chapman’s Lotus 49 with its Ford Cosworth DFV engine.  Clark led for the final 79 laps of the race with Graham Hill making it a 1-2 for Lotus. Clark’s victory was his 25th, improving upon Juan Manuel Fangio’s record Grands Prix wins.  This was to be Jim Clark’s last GP victory, and indeed race, before his death in an accident at Hockenheim in April.

This Eagle Gurney-Weslake was raced by Dan Gurney to third place at the Canadian Grand Prix of 1967, so it seemed a good pairing to race against the Lotus.

Both cars are fantastically detailed and handle brilliantly (if anything, a little too quick - they are more controllable with the old Scalextric handsets).  They are tiny and it's quite impressive that a motor fits in the model so well.

I always had a soft spot for the Lotus F1 cars in John Player Special livery and I found this 1972 version in good condition on eBay.  I guess the model dates from the seventies and it runs very well for a 35-year old toy car!  Now to find something of similar vintage to race against it.

Scalextric Challenger - the imaginary friend

When I'm testing out new cars, keeping the slots clean, or just having a quick blast on the track, I've often wondered about having a second car running around the track.  The quick and simple solution to that is a rubber band around a controller holding the trigger partly in.  This gives you a car at constant speed - not a great competitor as it has to be slow enough for the tightest corner - and isn't great for the controller.

After a bit of googling, I came across a product called Scalextric Challenger.  This seems to have been sold for a couple of years around 2004.  Web reviews were varied but if it worked, it was what I was after.  These occasionally come up on eBay second-hand but seem to be quite costly and hard to get hold of.  Amazingly, I managed to find one brand new in stock in a railway model shop on the South Coast.  I snapped it up.

From the box cover: 

Pit yourself against the intelligent race system.  Challenger learns any circuit then races it to the maximum.  New Mercedes CLK with on-board computer intelligence.  High tech trackside control gantry with LED countdown.

 Inside the box you get the car (I have the alternative black version), a strip with a pair of magnets, a set of controller keys, and the control gantry and base.

Out of the box, here's the bits needed with the gantry put together.  The magnets go under the track so that the car can detect where the start-finish line is (I just used a flat magnet as this one clips on the side of the track, which can't be done with borders fitted).  The control gantry takes a couple of AA batteries and is effectively a remote starter for the car - IR transmitter at top, with red and green lights for countdown underneath.  On the back are three buttons to instruct the car: Learn, and two race modes Slow and Fast.  The controller keys are for different manufacturers systems and replace the usual controller so that full power is sent to the track at all times.

To use it, you place the car on the track near the start-finish line and it will slowly creep forward until it detects the magnet.  Then press the Learn button and the car does two slow laps, its on-board processor memorizing the track by recording the position of the guide as it goes round.  After two laps, the car will stop again at the start line, you press a Race button and it goes off at speed when the lights turn green.

So does it work?

No, not out of the box.  I found the car much too fast even in Learn mode.  It would deslot on my hairpins and after helping it round those so it could actually learn the track, as soon as it was at race speed it would come off on many of the corners.  Very frustrating.

Some websites suggested truing the tyres or swapping them for slicker ones.  That didn't help.  But some suggested an extra magnet to keep the back end from swinging out on the corners quite so much.  That worked!  With the addition of a bar magnet behind the rear axle (initially blu-tacked, but to be epoxied next) the car stays on the track all the way round, and proves to be a challenging competitor.

Here's a short video of the car learning and then racing my home track.



It's also an unforgiving competitor.  Of course it doesn't stop until the end of the race, so it won't slow down to let me catchup after I de-slot and, much worse, it won't stop if I've come off into its lane - it will just pile on into me!  So I may wire in a momentary push button at the controller key which will act to switch the car back into creep mode.

Of course I'd rather be racing against a real person but this is an effective extra challenge when I'm using the track on my own.

350Z soft-top conversion

Back in March when I bought my 350Z Roadster, I blogged about buying a 350Z Coupe slot car.  Several manufacturers make the Coupe model but nobody sells the Roadster version.  So I had to make my own.

I bought a 350Z Coupe in silver made by Autoart, and converted it to match my real car.

The first step was to take the Coupe apart:

And then get the Dremel out at remove the roof and back pillars:

Then I superglued in a piece of plasticard to form a new base for the bodywork:

Using Milliput I shaped the rear of the car and the wind-deflector pods behind the seats:

Undercoated the Milliput in grey:

And then painted the whole car in blue and varnished it.  Finishing touches were glueing the windscreen back into place, painting the tan seats black, and using black wire to form the roll hoops behind the headrests:

It's not a perfect finish but it's not bad, and as far as I know, it's the only 1:32 350Z Roadster slot car in the world!  Unusually, Autoart sell this car without a driver, which looks fine on display but ridiculous when it's on the track, so I need to get a driver to properly finish it off.

EDIT: 27 July 2012 - Now with a driver...

SAS Jeep Conversion

This is a companion for the VW Kubelwagen I converted in April.  Again the starting point was a 1/35 scale Tamiya plastic kit.

Lots and lots of pieces...

I shortened significantly a PCS slot car chassis...

... and cut out the floor plan of the jeep to accommodate the motor and cut a slot for the gear.

The jeep comes with all the requirements of long-range desert reconnaissance and actions behind enemy lines: spare tyres, plenty of jerrycans for gasolines, water bottles, single and double Vickers machine guns, spare ammo, sand-channels and a spade.

I had to modify the driver and passenger to ensure their legs fitted over the motor - a little light surgery below the knees.

Finally, all painted up, the finished model.  It runs perfectly on the track but one roll and it'll lose half the equipment, so I don't plan to race this one in anger.

One modification by the SAS can be seen at the front of the jeep.  They would cut off all but two of the radiator grill members to increase air intake and improve cooling.  To the front of the grill, they fixed a small cylindrical can linked to the radiator by a hose, to act as a condenser.  This ensures the precious water was cooled in the can and re-used whenever the radiator boiled.

Here's an original photo, which clearly inspired the Tamiya designer.

And lastly, here's the two North Africa vehicles together.

UK Slot Car Festival 2012

Andy and I went to the UK Slot Car Festival 2012 last weekend at the Heritage Motor Centre in Warwickshire.

As well as lots of traders and manufacturers, there were a couple of dozen tracks set up, including several rally stages: one through a construction site...

...another through a farm...

...and even one through a safari park...

Other highlights from the scenic tracks included this tractor pulling a rally car out of a river...

...and this crashed car that had glowing lights to represent an engine fire and real smoke:

I bought a couple of cars - one for conversion and one is a kit to build up, so I'll blog about those when they're completed.  In the meantime, here's some inspiration for John H: a couple of Land Rover conversions I spotted at the show: