Oakland Raceway V2

[SlotsNZ]

Great night thanks guys, and flaming relieved it got "the tick"

 

Here's a few seconds of the semi-serious

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCNg2zJAmyI

[charlesx]

Congratulations on a successful opening Mark. Track looks great and no doubt a great drive. Hope to be able to sample when in Napier for 12 hour.

 

Glad good old Taranaki was able to contribute to such a worthwhile and well executed project.

 

Regards

 

Chas Le Breton

[slotmadmac]

Bloody good effort Mark. A really professional piece of work.

 

It's just what the boys needed. A nice mix of technical and flow - and very different from the other tracks we race on.

 

We'll all be better drivers as a result of Oakland V2.

 

Except SlotJockey of course. He's already perfect. Just ask him.

 

Mac

[SLOTJOCKEY]

Bloody good effort Mark. A really professional piece of work.

 

It's just what the boys needed. A nice mix of technical and flow - and very different from the other tracks we race on.

 

We'll all be better drivers as a result of Oakland V2.

 

Except SlotJockey of course. He's already perfect. Just ask him.

 

Mac

My wife might have a different answer to that question.

[charlesx]

Hi Slotmadmac,

 

The other option was of course to come over and try our two tracks as you Napierits have threatened but that might have to wait a while.

 

Was certainly great to have your cars here for Canam Proxy so you have at least visited in spirit.

 

See you for 12 hour in October.

 

Regards

 

Chas Le Breton

[SlotsNZ]

Just a more up to date pic

 

[jimmi]

Awesome track you got there SlotsNZ

[Roath]

Wow that does look awesome!! ( must be time to start another one..lol)

[SlotsNZ]

After a 10 monnth haiatus, I have started on the scenic work for Oakland

 

First up is the pitlane. I had designed the track with 2 removable section in the middle. These are the pitlane, and it makes it easy to work on them, wherever I wish. It also means I can stand in those holes to work on other scenic areas later.

 

Every pit needs a pit building. So here's what I've done the last 2 weeks.

 

Started off by drawing up a typical frontage and other walls on 3mm MDF, then cut it out and painted white.

 

In the shot below I have drilled a couple of 2mm holes through all the dividing walls and inserted two lengths of brass

welding rod, which will become both conductors for the lights, and the actual mount for them, out of sight, just below

ceiling level

 

Now assembled, the lower part of all the pit garage walls painted a dark grey that won't show the working grime !

A bunch of sponsor logos printed up, cut out and stuck on the walls.

It was SO much easier doing this BEFORE the walls are all glued together.

 

 

Starting to come together. The roof will remain removable for later improvements and repairs.

I had intended to mount the timing monitors and race screens on some cardboard to give a 3D depth effect, but

in the end I realised they will only be seen close to square front on, so dispensed with that extra step.

 

For the garage roof I have glued a 15 mm wide strip of MDF to the front. That will function both to locate the roof in

the correct place, and also forms a light barrier to stop forward light bleed under the front edge.

 

Like so

 

Now for a cunning step. I had found some A4 size corrogated cardboard in the scrap-booking section of a stationery

store. 8 sheets, all different colours. So I used a cheap spray can enamel to get them roughly the same colour.

Couldn't get them really the same, so I cut them into strips and attached them with lots of PVA glue, lightly weighted

down in place to create the effect of an old roof.

 

 

A closer up shot of the roofing iron

 

Just test fitting the pit sections in place. I have some work benches, tools etc in the put garage bays, but need to find

a source of 1/32nd interior furniture. So if anyone knows a source, I'd like to hear from you.

 

The removable sections get power pickup via a mix of copper tape, and braid laid down on the underside of each

pit section, and the top edge of the supports they sit upon. - So nothing to unplug to remove them.

 

I have used white and blue LEDs, and some incandescent bulbs to give the different coloured lights.

 

 

[Ember]

Pretty good way to start Mark.

 

If you're really lucky, you'll find that corrugated card is available in two different corrugation patterns. Handy if you want "repairs" to show up or want two things to stand out against each other.

[K1W1]

Just on the corrugated iron look..... you can also get packaging material which is corrugated one side and has flat paper covering the other side - ideal if you are simply gluing to a surface such as the MDF as you only need one side of corrugate showing. There are various breeds of it so different sized corrugations but possibly most of it could be too big from roof or cladding at 1:32. It is widely used in industry in NZ and I would think prob Aussie? therefore, readily available for free which is always a good thing. I got some from work and have been making corrugated iron 'Armco' barriers using this pinned to balsa posts. Will put up some photos when I get a bit further along with it.

 

Those buildings look great Mark (as does your whole track) - the build doesn't sound too hard to do by your description either. There's a couple of ppl on t/me with 1:32 or 1:35 furniture but it's pretty expensive for what you get I think and also 2nd world war based so you might end up with German radio sets and such like!! (Could find some desks and things like that though of course)

 

Cheers - Wayne

[K1W1]

Just had a bit of a look for that furniture.

Some of what I had seen and was thinking of was the Miniart war furniture in kit MA35548 but it's probably a bit too household oriented for what you are looking for. (Dining table, chairs, dressers, sideboards, etc)

Other than that, maybe try the kids department at The Wharehouse and see what they have?? There must be something about the right size amongst the Littlelestpetshops and other assorted cr@p!

Siku do quite a few static models like farm vehicles, etc that are reasonably priced and the right scale but don't think they do furniture type stuff.

[SlotsNZ]

Heya Wayne

 

good thinking on the industrial corrugate. I knew there was stuff out there - had been looking for the liners from Cadbury's chocolate boxes actually, they use another one. - As I type this my slow brain remembers I am friend of the owner of Printstock Products who do most of the foil packaging in NZ, and half the fast food industry stuff - and his factory is half a city block only 4 minutes drive from our house . . how thick is THAT......he's bound to have various kinds of corrugate amongst his food industry packing raw materials. - He may even form the corrugate himself on site.

But the stationery stuff was only 4 bucks and would do twice what I am doing for my 2 roofs.... so pretty good deal.

 

Must nick your armco idea . . notes to visit Graham soon .....

 

- Might check the Tamiya range of war figures and diorama stuff .... I can get those wholesale.

 

This mob have some good stuff http://stores.shop.e...co.uk/one32toys

[K1W1]

If you discover a good source of corrugate sheet with no cover paper, I would be interested in getting hold of a bit. I found some thats prefect for roof/wall cladding in a packaging box but only small amount. I can't find any locally - want to use it like a sheet of corrugated iron (visible on both sides) on old shed.

 

The armco is looking okay so far. I peeled the flat paper off the one side of the corrugated packaging so it was a bit of a mission. Leaves a bit of fluffy stuff behind so I've used the rough side as the back of the barriers and figure the left over fluffy stuff looks close enough to moss and cr@p that sits on roadside fixtures anyway. The downside is that the peeled off corrugate doesn't have much strength and it tends to bend the wrong direction for what Im trying to do. (It's good on outside of curves - not so good for inside) Have managed to crease it a few times when bending but I figure any real armco has bumps and smacks in it anyway so it should look real enough. I got some cold galv paint to finish it off with so will see what that looks like once on - will stiffen it up nicely as well. Intention is to fix the 'posts' to the side of my MDF track so I made these bit longer than required. The bottoms and the edge fixing will be covered by my infield and edging as I get further on.

 

The corrugate is glued and pinned (short dressmaking pins) to the posts. The real barriers have a block between the post and the corru steel but I couldn't be bothered with that bit - too much hassle for what I wanted to achieve so mine are fixed direct to the posts. The pin head looks close enough to a dirty big bolt holding it all together. I painted the balsa with watered down acrylic in a mucky brown to try and emulate the treated but unfinished real posts covered with the usual roadside grime/dust/etc. They will probably look a bit too tidy but overall effect should be okay I hope.

 

The hardest part is it's quite laborious making these so after a weekend of doing quite a lot on it, I think I probably only have about 3m of barrier so I will be fairly selective about where they get used. My other walls are much faster as they are from foam already formed. Also want to do some with thin MDF with nylon fly screen mounted to top to keep the spectators under control. Found that the right sixed nail looks pretty good as a post for this - only issue is that it's easy to make for flat areas, hard to get it looking any good for anywher that slopes with a curve!!

 

Will post some pics on my track build thread once I get it a bit further.

[Ember]

Sorry to interrupt Mark. Just a brief sidestep, I promise.

If you discover a good source of corrugate sheet with no cover paper, I would be interested in getting hold of a bit. I found some thats prefect for roof/wall cladding in a packaging box but only small amount. I can't find any locally - want to use it like a sheet of corrugated iron (visible on both sides) on old shed.

To get corrugated iron sheets I used the craft/scrap booking type card ($2 for 10 sheets at local tightwad shop), probably the same sort Mark used for his roof, and actually peeled the backing paper off it. Not the most exciting thing I've ever done, but it's amazing what can be achieved when the other half is watching football. Anyway. I stripped the backing off a sheet before I sprayed both sides with aluminium paint and got enough to do the shed roof and a few left over sheets scattered around the track.

[K1W1]

Thanks Embs - I knew you would come to the rescue!! One minor downfall with your cunning plan is that unfortunately, I am the other half that likes watching football so I don't seem to get too much done! (btw - obviously not your particular other half - someone elses)

So that is what you used for the roof of your way cool little shed with the handmade door hardware and tools, etc??

 

I was thinking about how to achive the effect of the edges of a sheet of iron rusting away. (apart from the colouration) Wondered about risking incinerating the household by burning the edges slightly - to me, I think it would give that edge where rust has partially eaten away the iron and weakened the remaining edge material. What do you think - or any ideas/tips on other methods??

 

Sorry for anyone reading this as it's a bit off topic - it should probably be under a different section but I think we are almost finished :-)

[Ember]

In your instance you could probably substitute 'watching soaps' for 'watching football'.

 

Flames might work, but tearing probably would too and less detrimental to the safety of the household.

 

The model railroader mob use styrene corrugated sheet from Pastistrut, Evergreen and the like. I recall reading an article that suggested using this sheet as a press to form the corrugated iron out of aluminium take-away trays (thicker aluminium than the supermarket variety) as the aluminium was then more easily battered, weathered and holed for 'rust'. Not sure if that suggestion is any help, or that description/explanation actually even makes sense.

[K1W1]

Thanks Embs - very helpful as usual. Not sure on the aluminium idea - I think I'd end up with a whole ot of weathered and battered and possibly a very tiny amount of corrugated holding it together (and even then - only if I was lucky!)

 

I think I will try the tearing and also the flames (just can't resist) - if the burining gets out of hand, all going well, will post a video for everyones amusement

 

Cheers

Wayne

[SlotsNZ]

The card I used didn't have backing paper, it is corro both sides, so I just extaneded it out past the sub structure enough that at the ends, all you see is the corro, not any MDF. When I get time and patience, I am going to stain up some bass-wood and make a frame that glues under it, and at it's back edge, onto the MDF base plate of the roof to simulate wood framing for the corro.

 

I got my card from the Scrapbooking section at The Warehouse (red shed, not their stationery chain)

But it was 8 different colours. I couldn't find it - The "man-look" problem, according to my beloved. She spent 10 minutes picking through about 20 shelves and bins of scrap-booking supplies to where she knew she'd seen it - only a few months prior......

 

One accidentally cunning thing was, spraying on cold weather, and trying to layer too thick in the half dark when there was no wind..... I made some too thick and it was filling in the corrogates, so I got a tooth pick to encourage it to run off the end . . . and scraped through to the base (orange) colour in that case. I was going to fix that with a light spray the next day, but when I was done, it looked like the recessed part of the corrogation was rusting out where the orange showed through.

 

the card is easily dented, but that is good, because once it has been sprayed it looks like some pillock has walked on the roof without minding where the nails and thus perlins are....

[K1W1]

Excellent - so the dented corrugate looks exactly like it has been installed by the average kiwi tradesman!!

 

Haha - off to the Whare House then, see if I can get a lady to have a look for some for me :-)

 

Cheers Mark

[K1W1]

Actually - that was unfair to roofers so I take it back. Let's say it could have been the Sky installer, possibly the guy cleaning the chimney but more likely, the DIY kiwi bloke painting his roof on the weekend.

[kalbfellp]

I sourced corrugated sheet from a local gift wrapping shop,they just cut off what I needed,they have several colours so I used traditional red for the pits on Shelmore. I also use the industrial corrugated material for Armco BUT it did not last very long,even where I thought the cars would not hit it. I ended up getting a large quantity of Scalex plastic gaurd rail and used some nails to actually hold it and also made some MDT square posts so it looked right. So far that has lasted over three years.

[SlotsNZ]

Actually - that was unfair to roofers so I take it back. Let's say it could have been the Sky installer, possibly the guy cleaning the chimney but more likely, the DIY kiwi bloke painting his roof on the weekend.

 

You forgot to add the snotty brats from next door reclaiming their tennis balls - but the Sky installer is always the first suspect.

[slotcadtrackdrawer12]

Hey there slots NZ your track is looking great from this side of the Tasman. And to use your quote "precision like""

Well done am glad to have been part of it.

[SlotsNZ]

After an epoch with no progress on the track, I bit the bullet last night while mrs slots is out of town, and I can't get in trouble for tramping a mess through the house

 

Took the south end and made the low embankments. Mostly done now, but will need a few bushes, some marshals, and the lights installed.