Sweet! I’m psyched too. I don’t hear anybody objecting to MILS either. I would think it would be at least worth trying out to see how we like it. We can always modify it and create our own additional standards down the road if we want.
Here’s a couple things that come to mind right now:
1) Track – Is there a definite decision on track here? 9V or RC? Also, what color? I’m pretty sure RC track only comes in dk blay, but I know 9V track comes in both gray and blay. I am not a big fan of mixing them if it can be avoided. I have both kinds of trains so I could contribute something there (none of them are put together so I would have to build something).
2) Monorail – Matt already mentioned it, so, do we want to set a standard height and entry point? That way people making buildings and whatnot can have it run through or over their stuff if they so desire. There is a standard for monorails in the Moonbase format (I will have to find the standards page for that and add it to Evan’s information links thread) but the Moonbase is based 48-stud baseplates rather than 32-stud likes MILS. I also have several monorail engines and bases, and again I’d have to build something.
3) Baseplates – I was gonna ask if anybody’s done the math but then I just went and got out a ruler and did it myself (you’re welcome). A 32-stud plate is almost exactly 10 inches (very convenient considering they don’t care about non-metric stuff over there) but it’s actually slightly over, so three plates deep on a 30″ table would hang over by about 1.5 studs, which probably isn’t a good idea. I’m guessing that at least on the first time around here, Evan’s problem is going to be not enough material to work with, rather than too much. But I thought it was worth putting the info out there, so nobody comes up with big plans and then discovers they don’t fit on the table. Also, if you’re working in a stretch of table where it’s 30″ deep, there’s easily room to do two 32×32 plates and then add a 32×16 plate, which are plentiful and can easily be incorporated into the MILS format. More complicated, but doable if resources require it (although it may be a headache and Evan may end up wanting to murder me for bringing it up) is that 32×32 plates match up with 48×48 plates on a ratio of 3:2, the latter could easily be MILSed to match up. I only mention it because I have way more 48×48 plates than 32×32, and some of you may be in a similar situation.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing how this goes. I could be wrong, but I am sort of getting the sense that people are waiting to see Evan’s layout proposal before deciding how much they can contribute, and Evan is waiting to see what he has to work with before deciding on a layout, so I’m not sure how that’s going to get resolved.
OK, I’m done. If you actually made it this far, hopefully you’re not regretting letting me come to the meeting last weekend.