Do we have road base plates in LUG stock?
Seriously though, I think brick built roads would look a lot better, but idk how we would to the turns (other than what I linked to or that crazy think Matt linked to).
I’m actually leaning toward Greg’s camp on this one. I have not gotten the sense that we, as a group, have had time / energy / inspiration for a high intensity display lately. Now, if someone does have the requisites for making a section of brick-built racetrack, I’m all for it – but it’s not likely to be me between now and three weeks from now unless I build while watching Pens games or something (hmm…)
Then again, these curved roads would easily pair with Tim’s existing SNOT roads using 1×4 black brick – just need a metric ton of black 1×2 plate and tile. Now I’m kinda intrigued by the idea… and bonus points to sway Greg – there’s a POLAR EXPRESS in one of Teunis’ photos! What do yinz think? Anyone have a stash of black plate/tile already?
Quick thoughts / rough estimates: if we do just a section of track with the start/finish line roughly centered (say on plate 17, or 16-17, or 16-18), the track could come in from offstage on plate 8, curve on 9 and 15, then curve again on 18 to 12 or 19 to 13, then exit on 14. So, 4 baseplates’ worth of curves total. From this photo, I’m counting ~24 1×2 plates along the outer edge of the curve, and 13 bricks wide for the road including the center stripes (Tim, how wide are yours?) capped with plate, which means 13×3+1 = 40 plates high, which means 20 pairs of plate/tile wide. Inner curve is ~14 1×2 plates long. So, one would need roughly 400 1×2 plates and 400 1×2 tiles to make one baseplate-sized curve. 1600 of each to do four curves. I found a US store with plenty of plates at $0.03, and another with tile at $0.08. So we’d be looking at roughly $175 to do four curves… or we could simplify the track plan and only do one or two curves.
What say ye, gents ( @timf / @hacim / @greg / @solscud007 / @lunch36 / anyone else interested in this display)? Worth it? I’m sure we could knock them out in one build evening, if we had the parts…
Is there a finished half of the ravine that could go on the back side of the racetrack?
Not sure exactly what you’re envisioning here, Greg (I’m guessing you meant one cliff wall, as opposed to the view “up the canyon” that will be the viewer’s perspective for the completed ravine…) but I dunno that the ravine would fit in the display case while still leaving room for the racetrack… maybe @zbauer or @JoshHall, who’ve been more intimately involved in the ravine project, could comment as to the feasibility of taking one cliff to Cranberry, and the footprint that would entail (would it be 1×3 baseplates? 1×4? If it’s 2 baseplates deep, I think it’s a non-starter… if it could go on plates 4-6, though, it just might work.)
ONE MORE THING: does anyone feel like we have the chutzpah to tackle a similar display for any of the other branches I’ve talked to? I’d still like to try, but definitely don’t want to overcommit myself or the group… could also do a footrace / Olympics style build instead of another auto race…