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| A series of articles taken from the Road Racing Handbook Volume 2 (1974) on building a track and scenery. | ||||||||||||
| You barrel down the straight into turn one, fly off the corner and knock over a water glass ‘cause you’re racing on the kitchen table. Not very realistic, is it? Of course, it’s not, so bad if the setup is only temporary, but compare that scene with this: You barrel down the straight into turn one, past the ‘1’ marker, past a couple of hundred spectators, a row or two of trees, and a grassy slope with snow-fence. The sounds of the Road Atlanta ‘Can Am’ fill the room from a hidden speaker. That’s REAL racing, Man! The only thing it lacks is a little oil smoke and a fan to blow it in your face while the cars go by! A completely landscaped raceway puts you there, right in the car, wheel-to-wheel With your competitors. The art of model layout landscaping began with model railroaders and is an exacting, creative hobby if ever there was one! Much thought is required on how to make hills, grass, trees, lakes, mountains, rocks, and waterfalls and how to make the colors and blend together, as they do in nature, for the utmost realism. We’re lucky that model car racing can bring us into this fine hobby. More and more people are building and landscaping permanent AFX racing layouts. Where to begin? Well, let your imagination capture these sights: Beautiful rolling hills, marvelous trees, and green grass of Road America. The arid banks lined with spectators, overlooking the sand-blown esses at Riverside. The cars screaming down the long straights walled in by miles of | ||||||||||||
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| guard rail at Watkins Glen. The uphill and downhill turns on the red Georgia clay at Road Atlanta. There are these and hundreds of other sights at the real raceways, each having its very own personality, each offering the modeler a challenge to recreate it in miniature — or a challenge to design and build a better raceway. Whenever you visit a real racecourse, take color photos of each turn. Get a program and study the track layout. You might also try writing to the racecourse office and ask for any information that they might be able to supply to help you build your layout. Knowing what you want to build is of first importance, followed by knowing how to build it. Let’s assume you’ve decided on a specific track plan and its size. The first step is to build a platform. Generally, it will be constructed of 1-inch by 4-inch lumber in a simple rectangle, corner-braced if necessary. A cross-piece or two will add rigidity, and the joints should be assembled with screws and glue rather than merely nailed. Two-by-fours make adequate less, or use four-inch-square lumber for extra sturdiness. Diagonal braces to the legs are good insurance. Make the platform height about the same as the average table (28 inches) or a little lower so you can see the entire course from the drivers’ position. Cover the platform with 1/2-inch plywood, nailing (or better, screwing) it to the framework. Now comes the first decision. Do you want to lay track directly on the plywood, or cover it with 1/2-inch wallboard? The latter material is reasonably inexpensive and results in quieter, more realistic running. If you go that route, you may want to consider investing in a second piece of wallboard so you can sink part of the track below ‘ground level’. This allows more flexibility in layout design and makes for more realistic racing. | ||||||||||||
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| 1. Assemble track on wallboard or plywood and mark its outline after you’ve raced on the layout and are satisfied with the design. 2. If you plan to ‘sink’ the track into the wallboard, cut out the marked areas with a power saw, using the knife-type blade. This blade makes less dust. 3. Reinstall the track in the cutout wallboard and mark its depth with a pencil, If you want to leave a raised ‘curb’, keep the edge sharp. 4. Use a sharp knife to ‘feather’ the edges of the wallboard to meet the track. Make this a gentle slope, rather than a steep cut. | ||||||||||||
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