Making The Old New....Kinda

Matt, who single handedly made my crowd come to life also gave me these old, knock off figurers.
I wanted a photographer for my scenery and the closest thing I had was a guy using old school binoculars.
These are the kind that wrapped around the face and were a box. So, I decided to try and bring him into the modern era with a camera with a zoom lense.

As you can see above these knock offs were rough. The hat and binoculars were almost one piece. There was a ton of flashing and extra material around the hear. Well, it was more of a blob than a head. I did a lot of cutting away of this extra material to give it more definition. Next, I sanded the binoculars sticking out in front of the hands down to the same level of the man's hands. This would be the beginning of the camera body. However, it wasn't tall enough for the right look. I grabbed some model part trees. The stuff we usually thow away after building a model. The thin part # tab was perfect. I cut two pieces to fit the dimensions of the sanded down binoculars and glued them in place.

Next, I needed a zoom lense. Again, I looked at the model parts tree. I found two different diameter pieces and cut / sanded them down to size. Glue them together and then to the newly created camera body. Finally, out came the paint and brush. I think it turned out nice and it looks even better in place on the track.

The non-Huntchback head.

Before and after

Next, I had to make a proper home for him on the track. I cut out a section of the Ninco fence and used some thing jewelry wire to hindge it to the fence. So, he had a clear view of the track for his photos now.

Plus, it's cool to see him peeking through the fence from the other side.

Something Grew Overnight @ LRS...

The small, practice session sized crowd almost reached capacity overnight. Matt's generosity put another nail in my coffin. My family and a couple of my daughter's friends went over to Matt's for a cookout. We had good food, fun with our small cars and a big car, rockets, fishing, etc. Plus, he put 3 packs of 21 Carrera figures in my hands to help save my eyes and to make the LRS crowd more respectible. I will still paint some of the new ones for more variety. However, painting a shirt or hair will be a lot easier than painting them completely from a blank white figure like the MRRC figures.

He owns my soul so much. He does say on occassion, "The Devil comes in various forms." I'm waiting for the day that Soul Contract shows up in one hand with a pen in the other. Thanks again and again Buddy.

A Small Gathering @ LRS...

Well, I've slowly and I emphasis slowly painting some MRRC figures to fill the recently aquired Carrera double-decker grandstands. I go on record now by saying, "Painting little plastic figures absolutely sucks!!!" I really need a light magnifier to do these. However, they are decent enough for now. Later, I might do the additional washes to bring out the detail more. This already represents hours of my life that have gone by.

I used a toothpick to do the eyes and lens of the shades.

I also mixed my own colors for the clothing and accesories.

I did do a wash of sorts on the Grease Monkey. He had to be dirty.

The Marshalls and yes, every corner has a yellow flag. The 4 right flags were made from a piece of wire and a print our of color on the PC. It works for me.

I got a long way to go for a good sized crowd. A club memeber said that I've got the Practice Session crowd right now. The good thing is they can be added little by little. I see pre-painted Carrera figures in my future to save the cross-eyed headache of painting them myself.

I also used the same self-stick vinyl as I did on the grandstand to do a finish line effect with 1/2 inch white squares. I like the look and hope they hold up to the cars and guides rolling over them.

Long Time, No Updates...

I've slowly been working on scenery items and deciding how I want to do those scenery items. I finished painting the table top green. I decided on a Carrera Grandstand. The double decker with the VIP Box up top. I've figured out where the pits are going to eventually be and will be aquiring the double door Carrera Garages and the VIP Boxes that fit on top of them down the road.

I got lucky with the bottom 1/2 since it was given to me by my buddy Shawn and the top 1/2 was a great deal at $25 shipped. I had planned on painting them because they're just too white for my tastes. Luckily, Shawn had already painted the one he gave me grey as I planned on do them to begin with. However, he used the small can of Testors primer to do it. So, I had to either repaint it or bite the bullet and match it with the Testors at $4.00 a can. I hit Michael's 3 nights in a row coming home from work with one of their 40% off coupons each time. Every dollar saved adds up in the long run. I also lucked into about 5 cans of Testors in various colors in the clearance section at $1.49 each. Bonus!!!


Moving on to the issue with these Grandstands. I hate the seat stickers that came with them and Shawn's had faded big time and wouldn't have matched the new section. Plus, I don't have too many people. (Thanks Matt for what I do have) So, how can I jazz them up with a smaller crowd? I went to the real world for inspiration or madness depending upon your outlook. I purchased some white self stick vinyl for the Cricut machine the Mrs. has with the thinking it was going to do the cutting of 178 1 inch squares for me. She already had the black vinyl. Figured out where this is heading yet? Checkered flag seats!!!

The problem was that the cutting blade and matt that holds the vinyl in place needed to be replaced and that was another $20. I opted and chose to do it by hand. So, using the straight line cutter she had for her crafting projects I cut the 178 squares. I then had to remove the stickers from the one Shawn gave me and it was a pain in the ass. Then out came the tweezers and a very sharp Xacto knife to cut the vinyl from around the stair section. 2 days and who knows how many hours later, I ended up with this.

I still need to paint the sides of the roof grey to match and I'm thinking about paint the roof a flat red. It will need custom Welcome to Legion Region Speedway stickers for the advertising space too. Plus, all the little people I still have to paint by hand...UGH!!!

Then with the help of my Dad these came into play next. What are they? A little support, that's what they are. I have Ninco walls with the fencing and wanted to add them to my layout. They look great, but more importantly they work. The problem is that I'm running Scaley Sport track. So, the tabs that lock them into place don't work. I also, didn't want to damage the walls with nails or screws to hold them in place.

So, we came up with the wooden supports that have a groove that allows 2 wall ends to slide into the groove and be held in place by clear silicone. Then it was just a matter of screwing the support to the table.

Tell me that doesn't look cool. I dare you!!!

It will look even better once the trees are put behind it.

Layering = Visual Depth...pure and simple.

Here's the overall shot as it looks today. I still need to decide on how I'm going to make my other walls around the track. I want to paint a track logo in the big open green area in front of the grandstand. The monitor is where the grandstand will end up once it's replace with a LCD TV/Monitor. It's slowly getting there folks.

Opening Night...

On March 20, 2010 my Legion Region Speedway went live with it's first offical race night for our club. We even had special guest Kurt Moser. He's a 2 time Team USA memeber for the Ninco World Finals and recently part of Team Slingshot who just blew away a world record in Chicago. The 24 Hours of Chicago saw Team Slingshot drive a RTR plastic chassis slot car 233.3 miles in 24 hours. They broke this record with around an hour left in the race. We also were graced with Kurt's better half Jenny the Nerf Queen.

We only had about half the club make it, but we got 2 new racers who joined us for the Ninco IROC Race and it's always great to get new folks running with the club. We ran a Ninco Bowler Raid, Porsche 997, Ferrari and Mercedes DTM. The cars were assigned to their own lane and controller. This way everyone
ran with the same conditions in the race. Since the track still had a lot of dirt in it we ended up running them with magnets. We ran 3 minute heats and 2 total segments and added those laps together for the finishing order.

Everyone loved the IROC format and running the Ninco cars. I think the Bowler surprised a good number of the members with how well it ran. However, it did have 3 trips to the basement floor and almost had another 3 or 4 more. It kept the marshalls in the last turn of the track on their toes. At the end of the night it was looking rough, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

The other 3 cars managed to finish the night with no damage. We didn't have any real problems either. The Carlson Timing Track, Trackmate Software / Interface and the track call swith worked flawlessly. We did have a fluke with on of the cars motor lead coming undone at the motor, but it was Sebastian quick with a propane soldiering iron that got it back to racing in about 5 minutes. Then we thought the Porsche found an issue with Lane #3 through the Meat Grinder. However, after a braid adjustment the problem was gone. So, no track issues what so ever. Oops!!! We blew a fuse when the Porches' braids got bent on a re-slot and blew a fuse. Sadly, we thought it was the car and didn't think of the fuse until it was too late. It had an effect on the final standings explained later.

Here's the Legion Region Speedway Hellava Lap Board. After each race segment the Fastest Lap Times for each lane were posted and the name of the driver who accomplished it too. The best thing is that after the next segment of heats if there is a change that driver has the pleasure of erasing the previous record. It makes for some friendly jabs at one another.

                               Ninco IROC Series                       
       Final Standings

  1. Kurt 223

2. Pat 217

     3. Legion 209

     4. Shawn 206

5. Joel 203

        6. Sebastian 202

  7. Jenny 200

8. Eric 199

    9. Dave 198   

10. Steve 196

Hellava Lap Times

Lane 1 / Bowler Raid Truck was Shawn 6.446

Lane 2 / Porsche was Legion 5.523

Lane 3 / Ferrari was Kurt 5.450

Lane 4 / DTM Mercedes was Kurt 6.256

*NOTE: Shawn was the one running when the fuse blew and we thought it had to be the car and kept starting and stopping the race within the last 30 seconds of the heat before we looked at the fuses. So, I came in 3rd Place and if that hadn't had happened he would have most likely beat me by 2-3 laps. However, I'm still claiming the podium...LOL. I'll take 3rd or 4th any day behind Kurt, Pat and Shawn. They're very good drivers. Hell, 3rd to Kurt with his history...hecks yeah!!!

Here's a self-made panoramic shot of the race I made from several photos.

It was a very successful track opening and everyone really enjoyed the IROC format. Here's too race #2!!!

LRS is about to go LIVE...

Legion Region Speedway's 1st Club Race for the Cincy Slot Rods
Club is happening tomorrow. Well, looking at the clock it will be
happening in 16 hours. (Man I need to get to bed) I just wanted
to drop a quick little note that the blog will start to become more
regular again.

I've got the track "race ready" for now, but will have much more
done to it in the future. I plan on painting the whole table, some
decorating of it one way or another, walls, etc. This first race
should point out what all needs to be done in regards to walls
and such.

Sadly, only about half the club is able to come. However,
we'll have special guest in the Legion Region.
Mr. Kurt Moser of Ninco Team USA fame and now as
part of the 24 Hour Distance Record Breaking Team.
233.3 Miles!!! I did some quick math and if I ran one of the
middle lanes of my track I would roughly have to do 22,368
laps in 24 hours. No, I'm not going for it.

I'll post pix of the track, and the event on Sunday.
So, stay tuned.

So Close I Can Taste It...

I finally got everything I need to finish the track this week. The Carlson timing track and the Trackmate interface. The rest of the needed Sport borders arrived today along with a Slot It controller I picked up from the same guy at a great price.

My buddy is coming over this Saturday to get all the timing stuff installed which also includes a track call button. Hopefully, we get it all working without a hitch.

Then all I have to do is cut the wood to raise the infield areas up to track level and also act as the inside borders for the cars. Also, marking the lanes with a touch of color with my buddy's pin stripping tool.

Then it will be all about getting the rest of the basement organized and clean up for make room for all the racers.

March 20th is right around the corner. This will be the first race night for our club on my track.
I'm hosting an all Ninco IROC Race.

The following cars will be run...
Porsche 997 with NC5
N1 Series Corvette with NC11
Mercedes DTM with NC2
and
Pro Truck with NC7.

Yes, you read that right. We're racing the truck. I think it will determine who the winner is too.
It will be interesting with the various motors too.