TTTT Parcourse-Help Me To Build A Miniature World

[Overlander]

This therad will hopefully be for discussion on how to build miniature offroad courses (parcourse) for TTTT trucks.


I have noticed that I really have the most fun with my TTT when I run it on a miniature railroad layout.

I want to build a small 60cm x 60cm (2'x2') off road terrain park and I HAVE NO EXPERIENCE BUILDING HO TRAIN LAYOUTS. I am hoping Hally or Thorsten or anyone else can tell me an easy way to do it.

I have some styrofoam. Now what?


-Todd

[Dux]

I've been playing around with styrofoam making boat hull mock-ups and I have a few words to say about it.

Styrofoam is a very unforgiving substance; if you do not mould it well, you can very easily mess it up. But since this is for creating land, don't worry about crunching it once or twice. To finely slice styrofoam with a blade thicker than 2mm, you must start your cut within 1cm of the edge of the foam, otherwise it will crack. I used the long blade of a Swiss army knife (7cm or so) because it is pretty thin. With a really thin blade (xacto thinness) you can start from wherever and cut to wherever. You must perform a sawing action and cut totally through the foam for a clean cut.

For a rough cut, you can just dig out cavities with the tip of the knife, and you can smooth the bumpiness with a clothes iron. It should be pretty hot (100C or so) and make sure you ventilate your area because it smells really bad. Terrible actually.

For a large flat area with lots of bumps, scrape the surface very hard as to dig up every other styrofoamie bubble.

I might think of something else later...

[JTM]

also you can use some sort of compound that gets hard (like flour and water and salt all mixed like in gradeschool) and make hills and mountinas ouf of crunched up newspaper (for the basic shape and filler) then put the stuff over it and smooth and mold to your likeing, i sugegst drawing it on paper first.

[Dux]

You can also easily carve yourself a tunnel with a nice block of styro.

[Thorsten]

Hi,
In germany we have build such layouts, and creating a norm. So we can play together and put one layout next to the other and we have a large TTTT-world. At TTTT meetings sometimes it take more than half an hour to drive from one end to the other of the whole layout.

Our rules:
-The base thickness should be 3cm. On every side must be a possibilty (3 cm above ground 4 cm wide) to drive on an other layout.
-The position of this pass thru is on your choice
-The layouts must be put on a normal table without demage the table surface (no scrws or nails under the layout).
-The size and the details of the layout are on everbodys own choice.

We have testet differnet kind of materials and way to build. Our favorite thing after testing is still styrofarm (=styropor or styrodur in germany)

The base is a 3cm thick plate. The lenght and the beam is on your choice. It is just a question of space and transport. A popular sice is 50x60cm.
The reasen for 3cm thickness is , so you have a definied "0"-high to drive from one layout on the next. The other reason is, you can buy the plate in 3 cm ;-)

Now you crush some pices of styrofarm and glue it on the layout. The best glue is wood-glue. Other one may destroy the styrofarm.
On you choice you can creat hills. With a cheap kitchen-knife you can cut valley or dry rivers.

To get a fine surface you glue tissue on the styrofarm. At the next, paint the whole layout in green colour (or yellow / brown for dust and sand).
In the wet colour you grit some strew (like "woodland scenics").
The strew you can buy in a modelrailroader shop. The modelrailroader use this too to create their layouts. It is availibe in green (gras), yellow (sand), brown or grey (stones),....

At the last you glue some stones, wood , sand or other details.

So you have a very light and easy to build layout.

If you want to have a parcours, so it is also very easy to plug some pinns or needles in the layout. That may be a problem if you use other materials than styrofarm.

At the picture you see our layout at the "Hamburger Modellbautage" (a model-fair in 2001).


best regards

Thorsten

www.mikromodell.de

[Thorsten]

Hi, once again!

Here is another picture to see the different layouts. On the left one you see a not finished one.
In The midde is one to see, that build as in the description above.

The yellow one is made without using tissue. On this is better for building hard rocks.
Using the tissue is better for building soft hills.

best regards


Thorsten

www.mikromodell.de

[MaddMatt]

those are some incredible looking courses.

Great Job

[arch2b]

a quick and cheap suggestion- you can find prefab Styrofoam ho train layouts. they are usually 2'x4'. i might have one from my old train driving days. i know i have several boxes of ho and n scale train stuff in the attic. if i find it, i'll post pictures.

thorsten- thanks for the pictures. i've seen some really nice layouts on the truck trials sites. really nice work over there.

[freakanoid]

does anyonne have movies of those things in action they look so cool.

[Thorsten]

Hi freaknoid,
some very small movies including tiny trucks in action you will finde here:

http://www.mikro-truck-trial.de/video.html

best regards

Thorsten

www.mikromodell.de

[mbartell]

Look around at you LHS and find out if they have any hot-wire cutters, or you can make your own, using a trigger type soldering Iron. Make a loop of the shape you need out of solid copper wire and attach it where your regular tip attaches. You have to have a soldering iron that has the two screw type terminals. The wire is usually available at hardware stores as the grounding line for antennas.

To glue seperate peices together there are several methods. One that I've heard, but never had luck with is to put an extremly light layer of spraypaint on the peices you want to put together. The paint eats into the styrofoam, and makes it sticky. Press the peices together, and that should do it.

Weldbond also works pretty well. It's kind of like elmer's glue, but it is waterproof when dry and sticks suprisingly well to porus plastics.

I've also used a dremel tool on styrofoam, and the best thing to carve it is an 80 grit sanding drum on a very slow speed. This makes a huge mess, but it gives you very good controll.

You can usually find white foam in most hardware stores, at about 1" thick, for insulation. There is also blue foam, which has a much finer grain, and is available in 4x8 sheets 3" thick, if you are lucky. The green florist foam is heat proof, but you can use clay tools to shape it. This foam is also resistant to most resins, so if you want to get weird, you can simulate ice and slick surfaces by using fiberglass resin and bondo on it.

Normal white and blue (sometimes pink, depending on the brand) do not respond well to resins or glues that have a petrolium base.

[fastboy]

well im in the middle of making a smallish course and ive found that oasis block(the kind that florists stick dried flowers into.dont get the very crumbly type tho) is fantastic to use,i just glued 5 blocks down,then all you do is cut a rough shape and you just rub with your hands on the oasis block and shape to whatever you want,the beauty is you get very smooth curves and looks very natural,also making tyre tracks and ruts is so simple,just rub with your finger in a line for a few seconds.

dave
uk

[arch2b]

very nice:D the bridge is a nice touch as well.

[freakanoid]

and those courses but i will no way be able to make one of those offroaders but i so badly want to but u like need experts to make the chasis dont you.
any way if you can tell me anywhere were you can buy these stuff off the net and do they go fast.

[fastboy]

no freak they go very slowly,the idea is to use them on these courses,you drive inbetween little markers on the course and get a 5 point penalty for hitting the markers,falling over etc.

as for making one,its not as hard as you think,but it can get expensive with the electronics.
i started work on my chassis last night,it took me 2 hrs and its finished just about,i only have a dremel and a pillar drill.

i too live in england and parts for these trucks are hard to come buy,heres a good link,translated into english.

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?lp=de_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tttt-parts.org

just copy and paste into browser

thorsten seems to be the man in the know,im sure someone will be able to help you,im new to this so not very up on it yet.

as for buying one,again you could but what if it breaks..can youfix it??..thorsten again may be able to sell you one but dig deep..£200+

dave
uk

[Thorsten]

Hi,
I am busy in translating the TTTT-rules we use in germany. Such rules are a nice thing, but at first we want to have fun by playing with our little toys.
In a few days you will find our "TTTT-rules" on www.mikromodell.de .

@freaknoid

I have sold some TTTT Truck in the last years. Casually some friends of mine sale trucks, to get money for the next project (also me). But I think the better way is to build your own truck.
So the maintenace and repair in case of an "accident" is easier for you.

Aside from, the "selfmade"-trucks are a little cheaper than the "ready to run". A selfmade car will costs nearly 200 $ (without transmitter) If I offer you a "ready to run" you have to pay above 350$ (also without transmitter) plus shipping.

Is this a good reason for some weeks of "handicrafts fun" ?

And if you on the opinion you are unable to create your own TTTT or you have problems during the project. So feel free to ask here. I am sure everybody here try to help you.

best regards

Thorsten

www.mikromodell.de