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For those of you who are still awake, it is now mid-April and all the plasterwork is compete done to the tiniest bricks and painting is the focus for the next 3 weekends before the track opening. 

Rocks need definition and that means they need shadows and highlights. The shadows you get in thi first painting step. Massively easy. Spray paint everything matte black. All later paint will rarely get into the cracks which remain jet black and consequently you get awesome definition and contrasts. 

Look again from right to left to see this time the black undercoat and then what will be the final look on the left side.
   
Good view of lattice in background, partial undercoat to the left and full undercoat on the right.
   
This was the massive massive massive wall at the back of the main mountain with the snow tunnel on the racing side. It is 24” high and 7feet long about 60cms by 2.1m. A lot of big and small molds on that one!
   
Good view of center future spectator entertainment area and just how black, black really is. Note the rocks in the middle too so there would be no featureless grass plots.
   

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So we now come to painting the actual rocks. You wet the black undercoat with water and then apply blotches of colors like umber, ochre, dark yellows, greens and browns. Over that, still wet goes you core rock color. In my case that was white which blends with the black into a grey Alpine/Dolomite core rock color. Where the grey hits the blotches you get nice changes in tone like in real life. 

Then when everything is dry, you dry brush white onto all the edges which simply raises the entire paintwork to an amazing level. You can NEVER have enough drybrushing. Each path of the dry brush brings out another level of detail. I probably spent 3 days doing the paint after the undercoat and 6 days drybrushing. 

Here we can see the individual roadside “safety” blocks typically found on high alpine roads to stop cars going over the edge. They are all the little white blocks on the road side. They get painted later. Bill was fabulous in casting hundreds for me to use.
   
Really good contrast of the white plaster on left and near final painted plaster on the right. Also shows the overhanging roadway
   
Detail shot of the painted section under the overhanging roadway. Now with a little grass and trees
   
Overall shot. Contrast this with the naked track structure, the white plaster version and the black undercoat versions above
   
Detail of rocks on the main mountain with the snow tunnel underneath
   
Big back piece painted and out of focus.
   
The bridge! This was “fun” to build. Every single piece there is assembled together from those single rock blocks that form the roadside “safety” blocks that you can see in background. I think the central pylon alone has 40-50 rock “bricks”. The guardrails between the blocks at the top of the bridge are bamboo sticks. One section of rail is deliberately setup to collapse should a driver despot there and they will literally dive over the edge all the way into the bottom of the gorge. He he ehhehehehe. It has happened several times! Click on the photo to turn it the right way up.
   

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Add some grass, a few trees (now 200+), a few people (now 400+ and growing), some buildings (nearly all vintage Scalextric and such and a few modern ones), a lot of water effects and hey presto pretty soon you have a nice track to race on. 

This was the initial bare look. 

The overhanging road with a BigFoot hiding at the top. Note the support structures, again built by individual bricks. Apologies for the poor quality photo
   
The bridge over the gorge now looking more complete
   

   

   

   

   

   

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Then it got progressively more detailed over time. I particularly like the logic of the water on the track. 

The top pond / spring only exists because the beavers builds a damn, which goes to a small waterfall, which makes a stream along the track, which goes into a big waterfall, which plunges into a pool, which then goes under a culvert under the track and out into the gorge. The water is ModPodge and clear resin with simple hues of blue, painted underneath those effects. 

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

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There are more details but I leave for tonight with a few little images

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

[Tibbs]

Wow,
the detail is incredible.
The water is fantastic, I have no idea how people can concentrate racing around such detail.

[Anthony B]

STephen - love your track but then you know that. 

I love The Maserati transporter - built mine from a kit - but I went for sports cars ;)



   

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Tonight some additional photos, now we are last how it was done

I forgot to mention the display cabinets. I designed them and had them built by a local Perspex company. The last photos shows the drawers of loaners cars for our club race classes. We provide 4 different lane assigned cars for each class so a new person can turn up with nothing but a smile and still get to race competitive cars. I think I a. Over 1,750 cars in collection and about 200+ loaner cars. 

   

   

   

   

   

   

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Some other scenic shots

   

   

   

   

   

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A few more