I come from a long line of scale train hobbyists, so it was a natural urge to want to include detailed scenery in my slot car layouts. As mentioned in earlier articles, I planned far ahead of actually constructing anything around the track. Once I locked into a theme, time of year and how much detail I wanted to capture, then I started putting efforts into using ceiling tiles for scenery, paint and such. Now back to that train hobby gene I seemed to have partially inherited. My Dad has always been a great influence on me. He is big on trains (although he prefers the “N” gauge stuff) and has had some layout, permanent or temporary over the years. But he always had some scenery added to make it more appealing and fun for him. Same goes for me. I raced competitively for years, building tracks for technical merit and to hone skills for racing events. Most were built to some organization’s technical specifications, usually with clear retaining walls and striped lanes for turn marshaling identification. Not much of anything was added for scenery. I still like to race, but I’ve added that scenic touch and managed to work that into a track layout that can still be easily marshaled, should I ever enter back into the competition universe. There’s no reason, that with a bit of forethought, a nicely detailed, scenic track cannot be competition friendly. So let’s quickly review the plan and see how I added a bit of “water” to the racing facilities.
The drawing above was worked up for weeks before I snapped any track together. I knew I wanted to capture a late Spring/early Summer seasonal feeling along with a dual racing theme. The oval would reference the 1980’s-90’s Stock car era, while the road course would hearken back to the 1950’s-60’s sports car era. A transition of countryside road racing and grandstand oval racing, sharing the same table space.
In this article, we will focus on that countryside portion of the track. Water is always an interesting feature to add to a scene and brings extra dimension to any scale. For Woodrum Ridge Raceway, I placed a small pond inside one of the hairpin turns of the road course. As I continue to tweak the scenery, additional details will be added over the life of the layout. As with all of my WRR projects, this one was vetted on paper several times before a final shape and size was determined. I also wanted to add some “local” flavor to this scenic piece, so as it develops I will capture some details like a row boat, someone fishing and waving to the passing drivers, and some scaled flora and fauna.
Way back in 2007, I finalized what the track layout was going to be. Once it was test driven and I knew it would be challenging enough not to get boring and easy enough to not frustrate, I began assembly. I wanted to add dimension to the course, so there are very few “flat areas” to the track. Just like a 1:1 road course, this track rises and falls through small hills and valleys along with a sizable hill to climb and negotiate down the other side. As seen in the picture above, the little rise in the hairpin turn was ideal to place some water. Remember when you chose a location for water in your scene, make sure to place it where it would make geological sense, like in the real world.
As I built up the scenery of grass and rock, I began the sculpting of lower lying areas that would hold water. I painted the area to retain a sense of what it was and how I would plan the next steps. A placeholder so to speak, until the actual detailing started.
As details were added to the surrounding grass and rock, the painted areas help remind me the surrounding scenery needed to appear like the shoreline of a pond or small lake.
The water itself was made from a clear sheet of acetate. The blues, greens and darker shades of each were airbrushed on the back of the acetate. Once completely dried, it was test fitted to the area sculpted from the scenic rocks and grass. A pair of scissors did the job of cutting the shape, just a bit larger than the water’s exposed area. The acetate was then slid under the scenery pieces already in place. To add to the detail, I used a hair dryer to soften the acetate and to form ripples with a popsicle stick. After the acetate cooled, I used some of the ceiling tile dust we used to fill in around the curves and guard rails, to fill details around the shoreline and to hide the edges of the acetate.
Here’s what the acetate looks like in it’s final position. More details were added and will continue to be added to as time goes by and more time and ideas become available.
The culvert and retaining wing are plaster casts purchased at a train shop. There are many scenery options and ideas that will fit right in to the racing scene at the train shops.
So don’t be afraid of the scenery component of your race track. It can still be added, and at different degrees of detail and you can still run races. The two can work together. The grass and rock material I used does not get on the cars after a trip through infield. With a little planning you can have the best of both worlds…..and in your favorite scale.