That's great Dutch, thanks for the information. I will call the Home Depot and see what they can tell me with the information you gave me. I am sure that will do it. My friends will pick it up and put it on the plane for us. We always have to plan ahead. I just bought the interlocking mats also. I have one modular track that I made from tiles that I could find locally. It works fine (a little slick) but we have to be so careful not to break the tiles (they don't sell vinyl tiles here). I also have a soccer field that I put together to play car soccer and some other games on. I also have a car bowling alley that I made. I believe that I am going to turn the tile track back to usable tiles when I get the interlocking foam mats. Thanks for your posts, they were a big help.
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Originally posted by Dutch Here is a new pic of RDRW (Red Dog Race Way) turn 1.
After looking around for a while I decied on the dry-wall plastic joint stuff. After playing with it for a while I hacked it in half an am using straight pins to hold it on place. This is the second generation of my track but I think this is what I had in mind when I started out. I'll post more pic's when I get it finished
Dutch can you provide a little info on the interlocking mat you used? how much does it cost and were to get it? also if the surface is ok to run the cars on or if you need to add some other
material like you did, what did you use?
I'm looking for something I can take appart and put away.
I got the foam mats at Home Depot $20 dollars for 4 mats each is 2 ft. x 2 ft. and they work just fine as is. I was just trying to dress them up a bit with the other foam sheets.
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Wow, there are some really great track ideas out there. I thought I'd throw in my two cents worth too. I am planning on building a track, however this one is not going to be small or cheap.
My first one was 8'x8'. I used the backside of 2 sheets of ordinary drywall as the surface. For the barriers I simply used cardboard that I cut to 1" strips and began taping it to the drywall. It worked great, is a lot of fun, and fairly cheap too.
My next project is much larger in scope. It will be 12'x12' and have three courses. The width of the track is 12". One course is a large oval (scale 0.5 mi.) traversing the entire edge of the 12'x12' surface. Next is a smaller oval (scale 0.25 mi.) and then the road course will be on the inside and be (0.75 mi.). It is an ambitious project but should be fun. I have the layout all drawn on paper now I just have to build it.
I decided on using plywood as the base of the track. For the road surface I use a 2-part paint job. The first coat is just a flat black paint. The second coat is this cool stuff I found at Home Depot. It is a textured paint made by Ralph Lauren. The particular color I will use is called "Cila". I tried it on a small piece of wood and the surface works great! No too much or too little grip and it looks and feels just like you'd expect 1:64 pavement to be.
For the infield I got a bunch of stuff from a train hobby shop. They sell great stuff from trees to grass surfaces even little people. It will probably take some time to build but will try to post some pictures when its done.
Anyway, I hope I have given some ideas to others who are going to build some tracks either large or small.
I forgot to mention what I will use for the barriers of the second track. I decided on basswood also found at any hobby shop. It is much stronger than balsa wood but in thin strips is just as flexible. I will use 1/32" x 1/2" strips for most of the track and 1/32" x 3/4" for the barriers on the outside of all corners.
Originally posted by bill check this out.... this track folds up when done. I found it at the forbidden "micro rc center" forum....
Wow a transformer track!
I'm still looking for my perfect track material, I have a few requirements that I don't want to compromize on.
a) it has to be cheap!
b) it has to provide easy storage!
I like a modular track idea, using tiles of some sort, each tile would be made into a track segment, Strait, Corner, etc. by arranging the tiles different tracks can be made. for the barriers
I like the dry-wall corners thingy. but the tiles I'm still looking for something cheap to cover a 10'x5' area or so.
the interlocking tiles are way too expensive at $5 each.
These guys at Wondermat sell mat tiles at $1.62 per square foot. Still a little pricey? The idea is that you take each square and make track tiles as described above. Some corners, some curves, some straight. Then you assemble a modular track!
I am thinking, you could take a few tiles and cut them into strips, then glue the strips on as flexible barriers. The idea is that the barrier is made of the same foam as the roadbed. You enter with a handful of foam tiles and in a few minutes, you throw together a track, fit for any house, through doorways, around furniture, etc. The real work is constructing the tiles, and choosing what shapes to use over others. There is that PC program out there, Trackmaker. Excellent tiles in that.
I realize this is basically what you just said, but it's such a great idea! Someone should run with this as a business plan. Make the tiles, a little smaller than the flooring industry kind, and mold the barriers right into them. Make a whole set of these with different shapes.
Everyone could get in on this. Someone should start this and setup the template for making the linkages match. In other words, develop the system so anyone can make their own tiles and they will interchange with everyone elses!
Originally posted by caver01 These guys at Wondermat sell mat tiles at $1.62 per square foot. Still a little pricey? The idea is that you take each square and make track tiles as described above. Some corners, some curves, some straight. Then you assemble a modular track!
I am thinking, you could take a few tiles and cut them into strips, then glue the strips on as flexible barriers.
Sure, then they'll want $15.99 for each track section!! Like with everything else in this hobby.
But I like your idea, Actually the dry-wall corners are pretty nice, I was browsing that section at HomeDepot and saw a type with a solid 1/2 inch wall, no holes. unlike the regular one that have two 1 inch walls full of holes. This one only had holes on one wall. for little more than a dollar for like 12 feet or so.
They also sell the corners with cuts on one wall so you can bend it to whatever shape you like. pretty neat. After gluing these to the tile you can cover the corner wall glued to the tile with one of those green exterior carpets, that way you get the grass effect on the outside of the wall!