Pits Top

I've now added a circuit sign and clock to the roof of the pits building, plus a few adverts on the barriers outside.

I've reluctantly removed the only section of original Scalextric track from the circuit.  It's a chicane set I used for the one of the corners but the cars always ran a little slower over it and the new Ford GT40 pretty much grinds to a halt.

The electrical connections are good but original Scalextric track was designed before Magnatraction (the stronger magnets in later cars that help keep them on the track).  Where the two lanes come close together, the magnet is attracted to all the strips of metal and slows the car too much.  So I've replaced it with the remaining pieces I had of the modern Scalextric Sport.

It's the Pits

I've almost completed the pit building.  It's two storeys with six garages underneath and a viewing room above, made from foamboard and MDF, with some plastic for the windows.  On the walls in the room are tiny posters of my favourite car movies along with various office equipment.  In the garages are tool boxes and fire extinguishers, and a couple of dubious posters...

Here are three shots of the pits - the first without flash, the second with flash, and the third with the installed lighting turned on.

Final touches to do are adding some fuel lines and a something like a "Welcome to Highwood Circuit" sign on the roof.

Scalextric Swapmeet

Andy and I went to this Swapmeet today.  Loads of traders selling new and second-hand cars and accessories.  A couple of four-lane tracks set up for kids to try out (1/32 and 1/64 scale) plus a 40 foot drag strip.  This had some nice customised cars in both 1/24 and 1/32 scale but I don't really see the attraction of racing cars in a straight line.

Andy pretty much cleared out the hall of Metro 6R4s - the mad 4WD rally version of the Rover Metro.  He bought six, bringing his collection to 14 plus some bits.  There's a race series in there somewhere...

We bought some buildings for scenery and I bought three second-hand cars: a 1995 Lister Storm, a 1993 Jaguar XJ220 and, in need of a bit of TLC, an old Porsche 911.

Here's a great video from YouTube user LondonScalextric of the swapmeet, featuring me at 0:18 and the Lister Storm I bought at 1:20.

Testing, testing...

Louise bought me The Slot Car Handbook for Christmas which has lots of useful information about getting the best out of slot cars.  One recommendation was not to put new cars straight on the track but instead to run the motors in at various increasing voltages.  This is to prevent arcing at high voltages which vaporises bits of brush or commutator inside the motor.  I bought a variable voltage transformer and wired it up to a modified Scalextric Powerbase to act as a testbed.  A piece of MDF prevents the cars shooting off the front and pieces of foamcard underneath lift the driving wheels away from the track.

The other purpose of the testbed is to true the tyres.  Instead of the foamcard lifting the rear wheels clear, a piece of sandpaper is placed underneath and so any bulge in the tyres can be rubbed away.

On the testbed above are two Christmas presents from Andy - both in Martini colours.  In silver is the Porsche 917/10 Turbo Interserie 1974 and in black, a Marcos LM600.

I also got a car from Kieron for Christmas as well, a rather tasty Ford GT40 in silver and black - a Mark II from 1966.

I am, of course, now running these cars in...

Tunnel

I'm getting through the chicken wire and plaster!  The tunnel is now completed and installed.  The entrance on the far side is just carved into the rock...

...and after plastering, painting and grassing looks like this...

The little holes on the right of the entrance have been drilled to accept a barrier.

On the (more visible) exit, I wanted a proper tunnel front with granite effect, so a few pieces of MDF and some railway modellers paper gives this:

With plaster, paint and grass...

And with the lights on in the tunnel...

In this photo, you can see how far the border strip goes.  Standing up, you won't see it.  But it highlights the latest development - home-made borders.  I've used 0.5mm plasticard cut to the shape of the track and affixed self-adhesive red stickers cut to right size.

A bit fiddly but much cheaper than buying Scalextric borders for the entire track.  It's the only solution for going under the tunnel but I've been using it along the straights as well.

Hill Construction

This is the elevated carousel turn going through four stages of construction.  First the MDF pieces were joined together using old video tape boxes and I stapled chicken wire to shape the hills.  Then using kitchen towel dipped in casting plaster, I built up the hills and rock faces.  Finally the rocks were sprayed grey, the grass areas painted green and then flocked with loose grass mix.

It's clearly not finished since there's a big hole in the middle.  This is to allow access to the power relay wires (visible at the back of the photo).  But I have a piece of MDF ready to fit the hole that will also need to be shaped with some feature (yet to be decided) in the middle.  I've got a few ideas but I've rejected the volcano as just too ridiculous!

Helipad

The standard of driving on the Highwood Circuit is such that emergency vehicles are likely to be required regularly.  Thanks to eBay, I found a 1/32 scale helicopter, helipad, ambulance and firetruck.  The helicopter and both vehicles all had buttons to set off sirens and flashing lights, so I thought the helipad should have some illumination too.  An evening spent untangling some Christmas lights, and clustering the multicoloured bulbs together (red for the helipad, orange for the planned tunnel, white for buildings) gave me what I needed.  I wanted the helipad raised because I thought it would look better and because it gave me the space for the wiring.  Here are the three stages of making the helipad surround with red emergency lighting...

The next stages were building up the terrain with foam ceiling tiles, smoothing the terrain by plastering pieces of kitchen roll, and then painting and covering it with modelling grass.

Finally, the finished piece back on the track with the helicopter and vehicles (with a small piece in the background I'd practiced on first)...