For those who don't understand what a FDM printer does, here's a short video.

Filament is fed into the top of the hot extruder, the melted 'plastic' is fed at various rates building up layers (in this case 0.15mm) to make your print.

This is printing a window former (buck) for a 1/32 Studebaker Champion that has been tweaked length and width to suit a customers need for his specific chassis.

Some useful tools.

Set up plate for cars

   
Can be used either side with car sitting on wheels or wheels suspended over the wells.

   
M4 hex handle for when you get fed up swapping the driver bits over in the only handle you have.

   
1/4 socket driver spinner, useful when accessing tight areas i.e. removing the hot nozzles from the printer without having to jack the gantry skyward.

And the STLs.

Depending on the various print variations the hex fit and 1/4 drive may need some finessing to get the right fit i.e. tight enough to be held upside down and can still be removed without swearing.

Cheers JMay

G10/FR4/Garolite/GRP...it's all the same stuff, cheap as chips, flexible and awesome first layer adhesion when it's clean

... 

   

Scalextric C1423M Scalextric Spark Plug Formula E Race Set - Jean-Éric Vergne v Mitch Evans.RRP £169.99. Scheduled November 2021


Scalextric are now official slot car partners of Formula E - the all-electric racing series presented as the future of motor racing by the FIA at the global climate talks in Glasgow. This first set gives us a first glimpse of the brand new detailed, but super-resistant, Digital Plug Ready Formula E cars. There's the gold DS Techeetah of two-time champion Jean-Éric Vergne - plus the Jaguar of Kiwi Mitch Evans, who finished fourth in the 2020-1 season...

       

Two more Formula E cars will be released between now and Christmas - the red and white Mahindra of Alexander Sims and the gold DS Techeetah of 2019-20 champion António Félix da Costa. The Scalextric RRP for these will be the mid-range £39.99 price point. From the look of the photographs, these single-seaters will withstand plenty of hard racing knocks and might just make the perfect single-seater option for digital racing.

       

The track layout isn't the star of this set - or even the cars - Scalextric have delivered an innovative format to launch Formula E. They've gone full-in with control via phones (or tablets) and a brand new Formula E version of the Spark Plug app. The new app attempts to reflect the fan-participation of the real series and can involve up to twelve people in various roles. Perfect for some family fun...

       

I reviewed Spark Plug with the original app in the SlotRacer Review section here. It's certainly a different way of driving a slot car, but it is fun and gives a lot of scope for gameplay, which Scalextric added to with the Batman-themed app update and have now given something extremely interesting for racers - although I'm not entirely sure electric cars have spark plugs...

   

You don't need to buy the set to get the Scalextric Spark Plug Formula E app - it is available now at GooglePlay and the App Store. All you need is the current analogue powerbase with the square controller sockets, plus one Spark Plug for each car and compatible smart devices. The app has single player, team and 'versus' modes - the first two are practice runs for the big race...



The new app allows two teams – of up to six people each – to participate in the race via the app. Each team has a driver, who chooses the driver option in the app to drive their car. Team members choose the team option - and they have their own collective and individual tasks to perform in the race, including pit stops, strategy, fan boost and attack mode. An average race lasts eight to nine minutes and is controlled by the app.


       

Spark Plug knows how much throttle each driver uses and if the car is on the track or not. From this data, the app calculates ‘distance’ travelled, which is displayed in the form of ‘checkpoint progress’ on everyone’s app screen. Drivers rely on their team to tell them the race situation and instruct them on strategy. Each team can have between 1 and 5 non-driving team mates, each with their own phone or tablet and with their own tasks…

• Pit stops – at least two per race. The pit crew carry out a tyre change and battery recharge. The app gives a warning and then stops the car on the track. An in-app ‘mini-game’ appears in pit crew’s app. Speed is of the essence to jack up the car, change wheels, recharge the battery etc. Each team member can work on a different task. Once completed, the car is released back to the driver.
  
• If a driver crashes more than a set number of times, an extra pit stop is triggered. The pit crew get a view of car to diagnose and fix any damage as quickly as they can.
  
• Fan boost – one per race, controlled by pit crew.
  
• Attack mode – the opponent’s car gets an unexpected boost that might cause a crash.
  
• Speed restrict – intermittent power on the opponent’s car to give a ‘kangaroo’ effect.
  

Fans of Formula E will see how some familiar features have been changed or tweaked to add to the Scalextric gameplay. Also, pit stops aren’t routine in a Formula E race any more, but in the Scalextric app, they play an exciting, collaborative part of the action.

I'm looking forward to having a play with the app this weekend - if it's anything like the previous versions, then it'll be pretty easy to pick up and learn. However, as a fan of Formula E, I am very much looking forward to getting my hands on these cars...

       

The development of the Scalextric Formula E range will be the subject of one of the up-coming episodes of the Yesterday TV documentary about Hornby - so expect to see lots of background and track action.

The Formula E Spark Plug set and individual cars are expected very soon and are available to pre-order at most Scalextric stockists. You can download the Scalextric Spark Plug Formula E app from Google Play and the App Store now.

World Wide Slot Car Chat Tip Of The Week!

Below is a link to the Playlist of TotW videos which will grow over time as new tips are added. Direct video links will also be shared in the comments and replies below.

If you'd like to contribute to the Tip of the Week, please either send me an email to ggaub@ggaub.com, or send me a private message, and we'll work it out. We'd love it if you came on the chat and presented your tip yourself, but we can present it for you, if you prefer. Tip contributors will ALWAYS be properly credited, even if they ask for someone else to present their tip on their behalf. If you got your tip from another source, please let me know so that we can share that source as well. :)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...BxIRy_DTbU

This livery:

   

If you have one to sell please PM me :)

Pendle's have long been my supplier of choice, not necessarily the cheapest but customer service second to none.  I had a couple of pre-orders with them for a Slot.It Skyline and a Revoslot McLaren and got an email from Neil saying that the Skyline was ready with the McLaren due shortly and would I like to wait until they had both in stock and save double postage. I don't know any other firm that would even bother asking.

In the meantime I had been looking for a quantity of  Ninco off road obstacles which are long obsolete and like rocking horse poo. I had managed to find a set of them in Belgium which are on their way but asked Neil at Pendle's whether they had any still lying about in their warehouse. He replied that nothing was showing on the computer but he would have a search for some.

I heard no more but my two cars arrived yesterday and included in the parcel was a set of said obstacles completely free of charge! 

Looking for Mark Goodlin

Well COVID Close Contact got me a week back now so I've been stuck at home isolating, so far two negative results, with the final test on the 12th Nov. and then freedom two days later on the 14th 3rd negative result pending of course.

Been putting in many, many ten's of hours on the track and tuning the cars.

Today's tune was the Slot.it Can-Am with NSR Air Wheels and NSR Super Slick tyres to suit the air wheels.

For the Red slot, wow indeed, grabbed five fastest times instantly with 7.5980 down from 7.9400 pretty chuffed with the lap times, now for more practice 


   
NSR 5002 Air Wheels + NSR 5259 20x10 MG Air Tyres

   
b. Slot.it RC Lap Times for Can-Am with NSR 5002 Air Wheels + NSR 5259 20x10 MG Air Tyres

   
01 Shenanigans Raceway (SR) logo

Just got myself a Prusa...it's the 3rd fdm printer I've bought...and should have been the first and would have saved me a grand! 
Anyway, here's tonight's print, it's a Slot.it IL podded chassis for a carrera MRRC Chaparral 2C ...printed in Colorfabb XT-CF20...should go nice and little to zero hassle in prusa slicer