MatCoch

It would seem I have two accounts here ;-)

This weekend I finally got a chance to spend a bit more time on the track. I finished painting the green, three coats in total, and then painted the track surface itself; two coats of black. Once that was done, I sponged a grey wash over the track surface. Following that I masked sections of track off, mixed a darker tarmac, and reasonably heavily dry brushed those sections. Again allowed to dry, I masked the remaining track, mixed a lighter colour grey and dry brushed those. The finishing tough was painting a few patches in, which are almost black. Copper tape was then laid, the track wired up to the power supply and run at 12v. There were some connection issues initially but I resolved those by laying copper tape over the joins in the wood. That's not a permanent solution, the plan is to wire it up underneath far more neatly than it currently is, but for testing purposes it does the job. On the whole it's good. Surprisingly technical, with the last penultimate corner a real prick to get right; it makes or breaks your lap twice, because it sets up your run to begin the next as well, so if you get it wrong you pay for it over two laps. The rough timing I've done suggests it's about 5.6s/lap. One mistake and that easily blows out to 8s. There's a fine balance between sliding nicely through the corners or getting too sideways. Similarly not carrying enough speed is also heavily punshied; the car doesn't struggle or get stuck, but the lack of momentum hurts. Next job is to add some texture to the grass, but need to bank a few laps first to understand where the car slides.