Street signs

I've named a few of the roads and corners on the slot car track. To go with the names I've made some road signs.

3D printed, as usual, with raised letters.

I've also added a plaque for the name of the layout in the same style.

Track and Cars

I've found the time to work on both my track and my model Land Rover Discovery 2.

I've been gluing in the windows of the Discovery. Yet again, I was not happy with the first attempt at gluing in the windows. I removed that attempt, trimmed it up and refitted more flush with the body.

I've also added a black border round each glass panel.

I used a long wooden stirring stick to put small drops of canopy glue along the edges of the clear plastic window inserts.

On the track I added another tyre wall where cars tend to drift out and hit a barrier very hard.

Small Post

I didn't know what they were called before I started making some but apparently they are called zebra posts.

Those are the markers at the side of the road to stop you driving in to the bushes when you are not paying attention properly.

The 3D model was created in Blender as usual. I had a little trouble printing them.  They are so tiny and the gap between the posts quite small, they ended up a bit rough and with strings pulled between them.

I didn't know at the time that small round posts in groups is one of the more difficult shapes to 3D print. I made some adjustments and managed to get them to come out quite well.

Filament
ColorFabb PLA/PHA Black

Settings
Temperature 205 C
Layer height 0.2mm
Shell thickness 1.2mm
Retraction minimum travel 0.25mm
Z hop when retracting 0.075mm
Print speed 30 mm/s

It was probably slowing down the print speed that fixed the problem.

The model is designed to fit snugly in to a 4mm hole.

Downloads

Blend file
STL file
Licence attribution

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50th Birthday BBQ

Shelley arranged a great day yesterday for my 50th birthday.

We had a few friends and family round for a barbecue lunch in the garden.

Linda, her husband, Rob and their two waitresses, Megan and Jo, did an excellent job setting up, cooking and serving us all.

Even the cats were having a good time.

The weather was perfect, warm and sunny with a slight breeze to keep us cool.

I had setup a Scalextric. That turned out to be very popular. Shelley gave out "clear round" rosettes to anyone who completed two laps without coming off.

Gwen's mum,  Gloria,  was one of the first up. She'd had practice at Christmas so knew what she was doing.

Much to my surprise and delight, Don bought me an Audi R8 and Andy and Lisa bought me a Mini with another to follow. When I got a moment I put some digital chips in so they could be tried out. The Audi stuck to the track very well but the Mini held its own.

By the end of the day the Mini no longer had it's spoiler and a wing mirror and the R8's fin was only held on one side. All easily repaired.

I got 50 boxes of Smarties from Keith and Vanessa and a T-shirt from Lee and Lisa with an appropriate theme :-)

When everyone had gone, there was only one thing to do...