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Đ Barkshire Model Land Project, 2009, 2010 all rights reserved . Leonardo Cerante.
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Scale 1:32
Model-Land Rally Project
Site Under Construction / In Aanbouw
THE CONSTRUCTION (Pars I)
Welcome.
At last the construction of my first MDF track has started, after two years and a half of delays and uncertainties...Well Itīs the first time I work with wood in a large scale and I confess I have no experience on this matter at all. What I am doing here is the result of searches and researches in many different websites related to MDF routed tracks in the internet. Of course I decided to put some of my own inventions on this enterprise. Iīm using some "unconventional" techniques Iīve thought theyīd work fine. Specially on the table. Since my room isnīt quite appropriate for a conservative layout, I decided to build a very different one. And for that, a lot of wood has been bought to assemble it. I hope you keep following the progress of this construction.
Well right after I brought the MDF sheets and the timbers of pinewood home I began working on them. The pinewood timbers came a little damp and full of mold and dust. I thought I should first clear off this surface with an electric planer. Then I left it dry for one night and one day in a ventilated environment. A great amount of sawdust resulted from that. But I did not throw it alway! I have stored the sawdust in plastic bags because it should be largely used in the future when I get working on the scenery of my track.
You can notice backwards the MDF boards I have bought. One is 12mm thick and the other two are 9mm and they measure 2.74m x 1.83m each. I thought it would be a good idea to use MDF cut in planks of 8cm wide to assemble the basic structure of the table. Iīm not sure itīs rather a bad idea or not but I think that it should work fine. Well, pinewood and MDF are soft materials so transporting, cutting and building became easy and I could use self drilling screws to fasten parts together. And the final result, in other words, the ready structure (that you are about to see) showed an impressive resistance and steadiness! It was possible because of the way it was built.
You can see here (left) how I have made the basic structure of the table. With the pinewood timbers I cut the legs. They are 7.0 X 7.0cm wide and 80cm tall. To connect the legs Iīve cut several planks of MDF 12mm (as mentioned before). They are 8.0cm wide. If youīre working alone, I mean, if thereīs anybody to give you a hand at all, I recommend you to use C-clamps. Well, even if you can count on somebodyīs help I recommend those. Anyway, after the boards are all fixed in place with c-clamps (as showed) you can now drill and bolt the boards and the legs together. If you have an electric screw driver, great! Between ourselves, I donīt think you can make it without one...I have used more than 80 screws.
And now I nice hint. To gain extra steadiness for your table structure, I suggest you build the structure with parallel boards just as showed right. This way your table wont swing and will be in perfect alignment. Fasten the boards to the legs with at least two screws in a diagonal position and the boards wonīt move at all, of course you should first drill a guide hole. Youīll need a sufficient large set of thick screws to attatch the planks to the legs...and a lot of patience.
Wood conservation: Depending on where you live you should have in mind thatīs well worth be cautious against termite infestation. I suggest you paint some termite poison on the timbers from time to time. Canīt be too careful.
This control painel was really necessary for my track. It will controll several different funcions such as lights, power supply, illumination intensity and the direction the cars will travel on the track. Behind the painel I have placed a couple of sockets and power terminals for future installations. In this control painel Iīll be able to set on and off track lights, (posts, lights inside the model buildings, tunnel lights and so on); led lamps that will be placed in several positions of the track, ceiling lamps, Iīll also controll two pairs of halogen lamps and its intensity by the use of two dimmers, lights under the table for any future repairs that might be necessary and the power supply for each lane. It will be possible to set the directions the cars can travel in almost every possible combinations:
( lane1 left, lane2 left / lane1 left, lane2 right/ lane1 right, lane2 right )
After the basic structure is built I have added more of those MDF boards (12mm) now they were cut in the width of 4cm to support the tracks and the buildings. Those mdfs really look like rafters from a roof. I believe itīs quite a good way of constructing a light and reliable base. You donīt actually need to buy a great quantity of wood for it, just make sure to build a steady basic structure and the upper layers wonīt swing, and you donīt need to cover the entire table with one big mdf sheet, try to leave room for you to work on first...thatīs right, Iīll have to crawl beneath the track to get to the outskirts of the table. There is no other way since I HAD to build it next to the walls.. A pair of knee pads are on the way then!
I have bought two carrera power sources 14v so drivers wonīt interfere one to another. These transformers were connected to the direction changer positioned on the control painel. This direction changer can switch simultaneously the direction of the two lanes.
You can also notice one socket is british an the other is standard. I did all the wiring first. Everything was ready to go right from the begining.
Routing in the begining became another challenge for me. I did not find any lexan strips where I live and once more I had to come up with some crafty solutions. You can notice I have used a rubber hose in the place of the famous lexan strip which surely would be a better solution for routing the curves. Well, that hose has really worked fine, the only problem was that I needed to nail it at every 11mm so the routing could be perfectly round.
An electric router can be very expansive here, so I had to adapt once again. I have bought a very simple and cheap one, the cheapest I could find at the local dealers. You can see it has a rectangular plastic base and that would not help at all when routing the curves. I made then, a round base of MDF and attached between the plastic parts of the tool. It worked perfectly!
Here itīs possible to spot where the village will be placed. I have layed a sheet of MDF on the structure and the roads were routed then. The buildings will be constructed separate and then fixed on the table. In most cases they will be removable if needed in a competition so they donīt blind any section of the track.
This is where the Barbican building will be positioned, in a short and narrow straight in the centre of the village and here will be the start/finish line. Two leds that will be part of the lap counter where installed in the roof of itīs arch. I found this was a good idea so the lapcounter will be absolutely hidden from sight and it wonīt interfere to the authenticity and appearance of the building. These Leds can be turned on and off by one switch located in the control painel.
This is the hillclimb section recently sawed and ready for elevating and routing. These sections will be a little tighter than those previously cut sections. Here cars will travell side by side in some parts and the bends will provide enough room for tail drifts in most cases. There will be modelled (later) slopes, bridges and a pine forest covered with snow and ice. Track extentions for some curves will be added later as needed.
Here you can see how have I made the elevations for the main flyover bridge that will sorround a corner of the track. I just cut some wood blocks of 5cmx5cm and glued its base on the table. Crash barriers and fencing will be added soon after I finish the routing on all track sections. As you can see, this is where the buildings will be positioned. On previous pictures I was still checking the best spot for them to be placed, now it is permanent.
Now you can see how have I made the elevations to the hill climb section. This very steep hill climb required more routing under the track so it could be easily curved. But watch for not making these under routing too deep so the MDF can break when you bend it. This routing should not be deeper than half of the thickness of the MDF. In the other hand you can make more under slots together so a more abrupt aclivity is possible in a short space. In the case of the curves, make sure these slots are on the radius of the (semi) circle aligned to the centre.
I have made the tracks in segments so that I could carry these track pieces outdoors for routing avoiding an impressive cloud of dust that comes off the router. So it is important to perfectly unite these segments after the slots are made unless you want to see your cars deslotting after passing by these joints, of course you donīt want that! So I have simply united them using a piece of MDF (4cm wide) under the junction, then screwed the two parts together. Make sure the screws heads are under the surface level of the track. White plaster will be applied later to fill any gaps or any unlevelling.
I just realized I should have done enough room for tail out drifts after the tracks were cut (blast!:-). To fix this problem, I assembled track extentions as you can see here. I have also made the first attempt of making walls with MDF. To make round walls I have used two strips of 3mm MDF. The first strip was screwed to the track border and the other one was glued after. Ready. A round wall!! Gaps were filled with white plaster. Now I just need to make the fencing and it will be very relyable avoiding any cars from coming off the track directly to the ground!
The barbican has been levelled down to the same level of the track as you can see. Now it is ready for the pavements!
By these pictures you can get an idea of the size of my track. It occupies half of the space of my atelier which is also my bedroom.
Elevations were very easy to do.Though it took me a lot of time to complete. Every columns required very acurate cuts and precise positions. And what made things more difficult was that I lent my brother my only electric screwdriver, so it has been done manually. Donīt need to tell I have no experience in track construction either!
A steep climb.
Where the village will soon grow!
1.Early basic structure
2.Intermediate
3.Routing and elevating
News always at "The construction" page 2