"Figuring" it out - Making Your Slot Car Track Come Alive

If you’re creating a scenic slot car track, there’s one thing you can add that will really bring your layout to life—and that’s adding some people. Whether it’s dozens of figures to populate a grandstand, a busy pit crew, some vigilant track marshals or just spectators wandering around, adding figures to your track really adds a lot of fun detail that can can look good and even tell a story.

Expert modeler and figure caster John Kit shows off some famous race car drivers.

For many years, the selection of figures that would be applicable to a slot car track was pretty sparse. Scalextric, Monogram, MRRC, Strombecker and Carrera provides very familiar (and limted) poses that could be placed around a track. While there were a few other options available, like a few metal cast figures and the inevitable Airfix/army man conversions, the available choices were mostly of vintage types—with 1960’s era Racing helmets and bareheaded pit crews, watched by spectators in old-fashioned clothing. Even the TV camera crews looked like something out of a 1950’s television studio. If you were modeling a modern track, it was a little anachronistic.

In the 2000s, things got better, as Carrera, Scalextric and a few other manufacturers updated their figures to more modern-looking examples—with helmeted pit crews and fewer spectators wearing mid-century era suits and ties or dresses. While it was an improvement, the prices could be pretty steep. Some advanced modelers employed old school resin casting and conversion methods to great effect, providing some extra variety and unique poses they could use on their own track.

You'd have to admit these Carrera figures are an improvement over the old stuff :-)

In recent years, however, the advent of 3D printing has caused an explosion in the number and variety of poses available to the modern track builder. Today one can find literally thousands of varied spectator poses as well as a wide variety of pit crews, drivers, track staff and many other useful types. These figures can be purchased painted and finished or unpainted, depending upon your preference and skill level. For those who own s 3D printer, there are a wide range of choices available in ready-to-print .STL files that you can output in any quantity you like. Many of these files are freely available on websites like Thingiverse, and others can be purchased on popular sites like Cults3D. Try searching for things like "figures", "people", "crowd", “man", "woman" – but be prepared to wade through lots of fantasy figures, etc. to find what you like.

Some examples of figure files available from Dolphin Studios on Cults3D.com

The results you get will vary, depending on the type of printer you have and your level of experience. FDM, or filament printers, use large spools of plastic (usually PLA or polyactic acid) and are capable of printing pretty good figures if you learn how to dial in the settings (temperature, layer thickness, support structure) just right. It took me a while to fine-tune my own settings, but once I figured it out, the output was quite good.

Resin, or DLP printers, use a different process that exposes a UV light-sensitive resin layer-by-layer to create a figure on a build plate. Like the various types of plastic available for filament printers, there is a wide range of resins to choose from, depending on your needs. Also, working with resin can be a little tricky, since it requires careful handling and disposal. That said, resin printers can provide a higher level of quality than filament printers—and this is one reason why it is the most popular printer for those who print very complex and detailed fantasy and gaming figures. As always, getting the print settings just right and learning by trial-and-error will lead to good results.

Some of the track spectators I have printed on my filament printer. Time to paint!

My own experience has led me to use both free and purchased print files for most of my figures, which will supplement the dozens and dozens of vintage and more recent figures I had collected over the years. I have both FDM and DLP printers, though I have mostly used the filament printer up to this point, since I have been able to get its figure output to be very consistent in a short period of time.

To see some really excellent track figures, creative ideas and discover some good resources, there are a few Facebook groups you may want to check out:

Scenic Slotcar Figures

Scenics & Slot Tracks

Boone’s Slot Car Garage

STNE Scalextric Trackside NE

Over the coming months, I’ll highlight some of my own figure projects and provide some pointers on getting the most out of your printer, as well as some examples of conversions and repairs I’ve made when the printer’s output was a little less than perfect.