Work Continues on The Schweizering – Grandstands & Marshal Post

It's been a long time since I've posted, but progress on the track had pretty much come to a standstill due to work issues and the fact that the family cat had basically "deconstructed" much of my grandstand building, which was pretty discouraging. With some hours of work wasted, I didn't really feel like doing much of anything for quite a while...especially since there was still so much more to do.

Since last summer, however, the cat and I have come to somewhat of an "understanding" -- and I take more precautions to protect my work. She doesn't really bother the track itself, just anything which happens to be on my workbench. This aids my progress as well, since the work approach has become “get something finished and get it off the bench.”

In any case I wanted to share some of my more recent progress. First, anyone who has some Artin track (as mine is) probably recognizes the blue starting gate assembly; not needing this for anything, I re-utilized it into a marshal's stand. I will be needing three of these, but since I had two original Artin sets I have plenty of material for that.

Also, I have (for the most part) completed the grandstand and garages. They are lit with LEDs (pics to follow later) and have been fully populated, though I am still painting pit crews. I just got the whole assembly back in place on the track, and am now working "outwards" from this area, towards the town on the right side of the layout. Most of the buildings there will be very shallow-faced building fronts, like commercial shops and such, apartments, etc. but the effect should be relatively convincing, I hope.

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Hornby Apparently Derailed by Olympics Setback

Shares in Hornby lost more than a third of their value on Tuesday after the maker of model train sets issued its third profit warning of the year.

The owner of the Scalextric, Airfix and Corgi brands warned that an expected sales boost from the Olympic Games ran out of steam, as cash-strapped consumers shunned its London 2012 scale models of black taxis and double-decker buses.

Hornby, whose Olympics-related products included a £20 Team GB cycling velodrome Scalextric racing set, said: “Faced with lower-than-expected sales, major retailers resorted to deep price discounting. [read more here]

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Audi A4 Slot Car Demos a Wild Ride in Toronto

Audi Canada has come up with a unique outdoor “test drive” track with Toronto agency Zulu Alpha Kilo, using a handcrafted 20-foot-long custom slot car setup, an iPad controller and a scaled-down Audi A4 Quattro slot car.

The track is located in in downtown Toronto’s financial district; the installation allows participants take the A4 slot car for a wild ride through hairpin turns, down long highway straightaways and through icy mountain passes.  Each car also includes custom in-car cameras that tie into an iPad app to allow the user to experience the view from the driver’s seat. The “race cam” footage can be shared on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. [read more here]

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Waiting for the Scalextric Lola Aston Martin

As modern Le Mans prototypes are among my primary collecting and racing interests, I have been anticipating getting my hands on the new Lola Aston Martin LMP1 from Scalextric. This is the car that ran at La Sarthe in 2010, and it was initially announced that it would first be only available in a special 2-car collectors set, along with the DBR9 GT1. While I wouldn't mind having another Aston Martin DBR9 (especially since the Ninco one I recently bought is such a dog) I was glad to hear that the LMP will eventually be available by itself later this year.

PHOTO CREDITS: Scalextric

It's a great looking car - especially in the Gulf livery, and if it runs anything like the other Scalextric cars I've purchased over the years, it's bound to be a favorite.

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Progress on The Schweizering Continues...

Still filling in bits and pieces...one of the items I wanted to include in the "mountain" area of the track is a (non-operable) cable car, which will go from the lower portion of the track near the grandstands up to the highest point of the track. At this lower end is a chalet-type structure which has a platform for the car; at the upper end, I will build a landing/observation platform onto the side of the "mountain" - with a line strung between the two and the car placed somewhere in-between. Yes - it would be neat to have something that actually travels between the two - but that is beyond the scope of my skills right now, and I want to focus on getting the track running again.

The upper platform will be on the "mountain on the right - on the left, I've just finished up adding a coat of Sculptamold on the last bit of hill at the turn. There's a concrete pad upon which a marshall's tower will sit later.

I tend to buy or re-use bits and pieces if it will save me time and scratch-build what I cannot find or what I need custom -- like pits or this building. This is covered in plaster stucco - I've added some bits of stained wood, some shutters I made - and a door from another toy castle I found.


Above the car platform, I added some coats of arms for some of the Swiss Cantons as decoration - the last square on the right is just a hole - the line for the cable car will exit the building through here. In any case, the building is now set into place with plaster cloth and more Sculptamold.

The clear plastic box to the right of the building is an empty chocolate box that will eventually become the cable car...

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