6 replies to this topic

[Johnnyfly41]

Hey guys,

Pretzel City Speedway is finally getting some scenery. The earth was created faster.....

I would like to hear, better yet see, your treatments of tunnels/overpasses. I have one overpass, which I am leaning towards it being a tunnel, with a road across the top.

My "theme" as if I had one, is a country setting, Watkins Glenn in the fall, minus the bleachers, pit road, garage area...... Mostly just nature.

My scenery is hard shell using cardboard supports, screen and plaster cloth. Cliffs and rock faces are being made with accoustic ceiling tile. Reason being, it seems pretty easy, I am dumb and besides it is fairly car friendly. ground goop and shaker grass will finish the grassy areas. Trees and maybe finer rock details will come later. Tallus will be glued down at the road edges.

Here are a couple pics of the tunnel/overpass





My thought is, it's a tunnel, reinforced with manmade stone.

Here is what little stone and cliff work I have done thus far.





Since some dummy put that overpass out in the middle where it's hard to get at, I have to finish it first. I am doing the ends of the track so I learn my techniques and have some experience to pull from. At the ends of my track, scenery will go up to the top of the wall of the track. Some areas I will paint the inside of the retaining wall and put signage as in like a race track wall. Oh, wait, maybe I am thinking of tennis matches and baseball games......

If you have ideas or better yet pics that might help out, fire away, I welcome your input.

thank you,

John

Pretzel City Speedway

[oldslot]

my only concern is for how long will the cars be unseen ? depends on where your driver stations are located

[chilla]

Screaming out to be turned into a concrete freeway overpass, I'd say. It'll look realistic and give more 'see through' space.

[Johnnyfly41]

Hey Old Slot and Chilla,

thanks for your input, your both on the money.

Chilla, your concrete span, thats basically what I am thinking it will have to be, I will do my stone wall technique to make it look kind of old school. Cheap, car friendly easy. the span is too great to actually be a tunnel, I get that, but I dont want to close it in either. With no sides at all, it really looks long and skinny. Building some mass into it with stone wall techniques will help that. (I hope)

I will play with cardboard and study the effects of bringing in the sides a bit. Racing comes first, scale realism is the icing on the cake, not the whole meal.

One thing I did with my track, I put 25' cords on my controllers. This lets one move about to find the best place to drive from. it's kind of fun to get a different perspective. I have drivers stations built, with reversing switches, but they are not wired up yet. I plan on using short pieces of PVC pipe slotted to allow the wires to pass, placed around the track as controller holders.

to get some lane equality, I felt my track needed a overpass. Always keeping paramount car visibility and marshalling access. As it turns out, I would give my design a C+. Cars almost never deslot and end up in the "tunnel". going standard direction, the cars are most likely to deslot in the infield before the tunnel. not the best place to reach really. In reverse direction, no problems at all as the cars are on the front straight right by the drivers stations and they go into the tunnel in clear view.

In landscaping, it is my top priority to NOT close in this tunnel and make it cramped or hard to view, marshall etc. With that as my number one priority, I then want to make as realistic as I can the scenery.

Thanks guys,

John

[slots]

John, I'd go the concrete spanidea but underneath use sloping concrete embankments. this shouldn't decrease the access and would allow cars to slide through instead of getting caught up on some edge underneath.

[Johnnyfly41]

slots, on Mar 7 2009, 06:40 AM, said:

John, I'd go the concrete spanidea but underneath use sloping concrete embankments. this shouldn't decrease the access and would allow cars to slide through instead of getting caught up on some edge underneath.

I like that, I am currently debating, slope the top inward more narrow at the top as in like a natural tunnel. Or, for viewage, slope the top outward, opening wider at the top than the bottom as in like a freeway overpass.

I know, how can I possibly be considering two polar opposites, that is how clueless I am though.

My thinking is, to achieve anything close to a realistic structure, it should be a opening that is more narrow at the top, wider at the bottom. I wont do it too much as I dont want to restrict view or reach.

the other thought i had was could the width of the tunnel vary, it will probably have to as the track and elevations at each side are quite different. If I do rock walls on those interrior walls, I will have to build it and then install it as working up there is not easy. If I catch the guy that designed this thing.........

thanks,

j

[slots]

If freeway bridge look, it has to be wider at the top. also, if it is narrower at the top, cars will jam in the angled walls rather than slide through.