10th-Apr-19, 12:27 PM
This is my home track, Conington Park. The decoration is intended to be loosely (very loosely!) based on Donington Park circa 2007 and before the disastrous makeover, hence the play on words. This is because I like the colour scheme of blue and white and there are some iconic scenery items, such as the Dunlop bridge and Spitfire, which should be relatively easy for an incompetent like me to replicate. Also there are hardly any trees in the place which removes another source of potential embarrassment as there is zero chance of my making any realistic ones.
I turned this:
into this:
However, it has taken 12 years to get this far and it is still not finished! The full story of this track has already been told elsewhere but future updates will be posted on here so this a summary of the progress, or lack of it, so far. If you want to see the latest updates then skip through the first few posts.
It is the long, sorry tale of a track which was started in 2007 and is still a long way from being finished. Laziness, procrastination, a preference for sitting on the river bank fishing and sheer incompetence delayed things.
The following really didn't help:
My DIY skills are limited to assembling an IKEA flatpack.
The last bit of modelling I did was to make an Airfix Spitfire in 1962 and that was fairly rubbish!
Any attempt at soldering results in burnt fingers and blobs of solder all over the carpet.
Redecorating the bedroom involves getting more paint on my clothes than on the wall.
Electronics expertise is virtually zero although I am fairly competent at normal electrical wiring.
So, if you are expecting high end scenery stuff look away now! On the other hand, If you want reassurance that your own efforts are nowhere near as bad as mine then read on.
Timeline
2007 - cleared out garage, blocked off door and paid my tame carpenter to construct the track. Pay It Yourself is my preferred method of DIY!
2008 - track painted, taped, powered up and timing installed.
2009 through 2017 - nothing achieved for various reasons but a lot of test laps completed. TIP: if you want scenery on your track then don't power it up before you add it and definitely don't instal the timing. I did!
Christmas 2017 - finally made some progress. I tidied up the existing bird's nest of wiring and installed a heater and separate monitor for the laptop. I also fitted some coving, wallpapered the former garage door and hung some pictures to liven up the bare walls and generally make the place look more like a track room than a derelict lock-up.
Also fitted back scene, outer barriers and white lined it.
January 2018 - first bit of scenery completed, roughly equivalent to Craner curves on the real circuit. 'The boys are back in town, the boys are back in town.'
February 2018 - By my standards this was moving along at the speed of light. Bearing in mind that the track is very loosely based on Donington Park here is a picture of the Melbourne loop circa 2007:
And here is my interpretation of it, not really a loop and in the wrong place if this was the real circuit. All the right corners Mr Preview, but not necessarily in the right order!
April 2018 - Completed the next bit, it roughly equates to Starkey's straight on the real circuit.
Here is the real thing:
Here is my attempt:
January 2019 - After some further delays for various reasons, including drifting well off task, I progressed to the next bit round the flyover. Obviously the real circuit is not a figure of eight so had to make this bit up. Eventually decided on a small spectator area plus a tunnel entrance and road for circuit vehicles.
So there we are, half the scenery done in just 12 months. The other half is the pit lane so just some pit walls and garages to do and should be finished in no time at all!
