Track Design: You can't have auto racing without race tracks. So far, this is the least explored part of Micro R/C racing. And, it's equally important as the cars, if this is going to be a hobby. There are companies that are beginning to offer commercial track sections like slot car track, without the slots. If you want to play on the floor, that might appeal to you. Three basic negatives come to mind though. First, you'll have to buy it and that can be expensive. Second, the design of your race course will be determined by the angle of turns the companies provide. There's no reason to spend the extra money and limit your imagination in design. Third, if you have to set it up and tear it down every time you want to race, you won't do as much racing.

You can build a track on any type of smooth surface board and use any material that works to add barriers that will keep the cars on the course. Your track can be simple or as intricate as you choose. You can create something completely from your own imagination or recreate in miniature, any famous race course in the world. If you don't have a basement, it can store under your bed. And best of all, R/C tracks are really easy, inexpensive and fast to make. Anybody can do it. If you're old enough to handle tools, you can build your own unique track in an afternoon. In Construction, there are instructions on how to build a track like the one below. You don't need anything beyond this to have a blast racing with your friends. In Detailing, I'll show you how to dress it up using simple low buck materials, and you'll see how this track gets transformed into a thing of beauty. You can take a peek by clicking on the picture of the track, then click on the finished track to come right back here.

As soon as I got my first car, I put together this very simple track so I could get racing immediately. It's 7' x 3 1/2', going both directions, you can race on more than 14 different courses. Best of all, it's just wood and paint, cost under $35.00, and took just a few hours. So when I say, that building one of these is fast and easy, believe me, it really is.

I've added some things to the track to increase the miniature reality (see Detailing), but I'm not a landscape purist. I believe in fast and simple, small time commitment, practicality and low bucks. However, I also believe in planning. Take the time to design something you'll be happy with.

Design Drawing: I've designed and built more than a dozen four lane, fully landscaped slot car tracks. Most of them were 16' x 4', which would be stretching the antenna range for micros. Three of those had multiple circuits. While most of the track pieces were screwed into place, intersections weren't. That would allow for taking the track apart at the intersection to change the course. A design with multiple circuits is the way to go. When you get tired of racing one course, change to a different one. Because you don't need track sections for R/C racing, just paint the road where you want it. You can use barriers to define any particular circuit.

Taking the time to actually design your motorplex is a really good idea. When I design, I still think in terms of "track sections" like slot cars, especially the turns. The design tool you see on the right allows you to create measured turns. You can use it in conjunction with your computer paint program. The scale is 1" to the 1' and allows for a real 6" wide road surface. That would be equal to a four lane slot car track section. As the micro R/C car is a bit smaller than a slot car. Four R/C cars can run side by side with plenty of room. So all the track designs will reflect this. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from designing with different widths of road surface.

If you're familiar with MS Paint or similar drawing programs, doing it on the computer is really fast. I've given you a detailed tutorial on Using The Tool with MS Paint below.

The best thing about designing for R/C is that you don't have any design rules. But, I would offer some suggestions. Start the design by drawing straight lines. Once you've laid out the design like this, you can see the basic form of the track.

Then round off the corners of the intersections. Remember, the road surface, the black top, is not the actual racing area. The barriers you install determine the actual racing space. Turns need run off room, and don't make the turns to sharp. The inner circle on the diagram is as tight as you want to go. Some of the toughest turns are long and sweeping, especially "S" sections. As a driver, you'll need to make quick little steering adjustments in order to negotiate those sorts of turn.

If you design a multiple circuit track, one circuit should be some configuration of oval. You're going to have a lot of inexperienced drivers coming over to play. Keep it simple. The next circuit, add just a couple of opposite turns. Let your friends get used to the cars before you lay out the tough courses. They won't enjoy themselves spending the afternoon crashing into barriers.

I always wanted to be able to drive my slot car into a pit area. Now, I can actually do that with my R/C. So most of my designs incorporate a 4" wide pit lane. That's something that can come in handy when you think about rules for actual racing.

Using the Tool: If you have Windows, you have MS Paint. If you're not familiar with it, left click your mouse on START. You'll find this paint program at the top of the menu under KID'S CORNER. It's a simple drawing program to learn and use. If you're going to use a different program, I think you'll be able to figure things out from the instructions below anyway.

That's the basic idea on using the Design Tool with your paint program. The rest is all imagination and experimentation. You'll be a lot happier with the finished product if you take the time to really plan it out carefully.

Sample Designs: I've included some designs to stimulate your thinking. You're certainly free to use any you like, but I think you'll find that creating exactly what you want will give you the most satisfaction in the long run.

These designs have all been drawn to specific board sizes. Just click on a track below to get a more detailed look. The smaller designs could be adapted to a larger surface. I've put in the driving barriers (light gray) and barrier gates (orange) for the basic oval on each track, but obviously more gates will be necessary to create the other circuits. On the design page, click on (Circuits) to see the various individual courses for that track design.

(1) 3'x 5'	(2) 3'x 6'	(3) 3'x 6'	(4) 4'x 8'

(5) 4'x 6'	(6) 2 1/2'x 5'	(7) 4'x 8'	(8) 4'x 8'

Construction: Any lumber store will cut a sheet of 4'x 8' plywood to size. If your design is smaller than 4'x 8', you're covered. Buy a sheet of 3/4" plywood, finished on one side. (For the track above, I added a frame with 2"x 4"s, but you don't need to.) The fastest and simplest way to make barriers is with 3/4"x 1/2" rectangular wood molding. You get that in strips, usually 8' or more. If you're going somewhere like Home Depot for instance, you can also get the non-gloss latex paint for the road surface, off road surface, and barriers. I use black, green, and gray. I used gray spray paint for the barriers. You might want to consider gloss for the road surface. The gloss will be a bit smoother and given some time, the shine will go dull. A quart per color will be more than enough. There'll be plenty left over for touch up work. Don't forget brushes if you need them. You're going to need some nails for the barriers, and bathtub sealer. Another thing you may want is a set of legs to make the track into a table. You can buy a set of four legs and brackets to do that. For storage, simply unscrew the legs. I think the optimum height is 1 1/2' to 2'. It's easier to drive with a bird's eye view and you don't have to worry about holding your controller too low, losing the signal. And for tools, you're going to need a hammer, safety glasses, small power saw and hand drill with bits, yard stick, string and a pencil.

REMEMBER: Power tools can be dangerous. Younger builders should have adult supervision. Also, make sure you have plenty of ventilation when using the glues and bathtub sealer.

When you get home, lay out the sheet of plywood on the floor, finished side up. Sand the surface and the edges. With a pencil and yard stick, draw out your design on the board. Do it with the straight sections first, just like you did drawing the design. Take a piece of string, a couple of feet long and tie the string around the pencil. Now, you have a compass to help draw the curved areas. After you've finished, stand back and take a look. Make any corrections now if you need to.

Depending on the size of your board, you may want to attach the legs now. Wipe down the top of the board with a damp cloth. Start carefully painting in the road surface (use masking tape if you like). Let that dry then paint the off road surface. The off road surface has many possibilities other than just painting, check out Detailing. By the way, unlike the drawings I've provided, the pit lane should be the same color as the rest of the road.

When the paint dries, begin work on the molding. Once again, start putting in the longer straight pieces first. Measure out the molding right on the track and cutting to size. If you lay out the barrier pieces on the track surface as you go it will be helpful. Number every piece of barrier on the bottom side and label the sections on your drawing. When you take the barriers off for painting, you'll want to remember where they go. With either brush or spray, paint the barrier sections. After they dry, lay them out in the right place on the board. You can attach the barriers with any white wood glue or bathtub sealer. I like the sealer because if you screw up, you can get underneath the barrier with a sharp blade and remove it.

Do Not glue down the barrier gates. They're going to define which circuit you're running on. To secure these, you'll need a power drill, a drill bit and some nails. The nails should be an inch and a quarter in length. The drill bit should be slightly smaller in diameter than the nail. Insert the drill bit in the drill leaving the bit exposed the same length as the nail. Put the gate on the board in the proper position. Hold it down securely, and drill straight down through the center of the barrier all the way into the board. One hole on each end of the gate. You'll need to repeat this for every position the gate will be in. Then take two nails and hammer them down through the gate leaving a half inch exposed on the bottom. Insert the gate into the holes on the board. This will provide a gate that doesn't move. Simply, lift it up and insert in a different position in order to change the direction of the circuit.

So far I've only talked about using molding as Barriers. I like that because it's smooth and resembles the real thing. If you have old slot car stuff, the fencing that comes with the sets can work well and look good. Another thing that can work is cutting strips of plastic glued to nails. Just paint them, drill holes and install.

At this point you have constructed the basic race track. Minimal effort, major investment in fun. Take out your cars and enjoy your work. Always remember to cover the track in storage with an old sheet. Dust, dirt, and hair are not your friends. You only have to clean a car once to know that. (Before a racing session, I vacuum the track and wipe down the actual racing surface with a wet cloth.) This is a fast and simple way to get racing, but you can take the landscaping a lot further if you want. The sky is the limit when it comes to detail.

Detailing: Even if you don't have a permanent place to keep your track, there are some simple little details that can be added. Of course, the more detail the more beautiful the track. A beautiful track is a point of pride. You can do a lot with some paint and scrap materials. Detailing doesn't have to cost much money, but it will take a bit more time.

The first thing to add is a Start/Finish Line. Can't race seriously without that. Just use a ruler or straight edge and draw it in with pencil, then paint. I use a small paint brush and model paint to do this work.

Most real race tracks have a yellow line on the track at the entry and exit of the Pit Lane. This is to warn drivers to stay out of that area unless using the pits.

On the pit lane each car has a Pit Stall, separated by a line on the ground.

The Berm around the outside/inside of the curves is a nice touch. The red and white or red and yellow is a mighty splash of color to the course. Other track side stuff, Tire and Hay Bale Barriers. If you have worn out tires from slot cars, just pile them up three to a stack and secure them to each other and the track with bathtub sealer. Hay bales are easily made by cutting strips of foam. Cut the strips down to individual bales and again, use bathtub sealer to secure.

You can do better with the Off Road Surface than just painting green on the board. Real road courses have a border of dirt between the road and any grassy area. To imitate this, you can paint a border of light brown next to the road surface. Then take a small paint roller, put some light brown on it, then roll it on some paper until most of the paint is off, then roll the area between the light brown and green on the board. This will blend the edges of the colors nicely. If you mix some sand in with the paint you'll get a rough pebble sort of texture. The cars can still run on it, but it will be a bumpy ride. This is a great technique for off road rally courses.

Something that will really dress up your track are Trees & Bushes. When I built my first slot car track decades ago, I took a cue from the model railroad guys and used lichen. Mistake! That's great and looks very real for train layouts, but not for racing. It gets very dry and brittle. With lots of heated racers grabbing for cars and cars crashing into it, in a short time you get a big mess. I needed something green, that looked like trees and bushes, but could take a beating.

I ended up using crushed foam. Most every city will have a store that sells all sorts of foam. There's two ways to go. You can get a bag of it that will probably cost you something or you can just find some scrap. Old chairs, car seats, and pillows all have foam in them. Just grab some and start tearing it into small pieces.

Having done that, take a bucket and dye the pieces green. Little trick here, after the foam gets a good soaking in the dye, take some out and begin to dry. The next batch, don't leave the foam in the dye as long and squeeze out some of the dye when you remove from the bucket. Repeat that with each handful of dyed foam. When it all dries, you have different shades of green. You can use combinations of pieces to make bushes. Just attach them to the board with bathtub sealer.

To make trees, again use bathtub sealer to glue together pieces in the shape of a circle and add some foam to the top. On the board, hammer in some large nails where you want the trees to be. Use Plastic Wood to make the tree trunks. Flatten out the bottom a little for the roots. When the plastic wood dries, paint brown. Cover the top of the trunk with a glob of bathtub sealer and insert the foam greenery on the top of the trunk.

Now this won't look as good as the model railroad layouts, but it doesn't take much time and it really works for racing. These trees and bushes will take any un-natural disaster you can throw at them.

There's a number of different buildings found at race tracks. A little time, balsa wood and paint from your local hobby store is all you need to do the job. Buildings don't have to be glued in place. You can store them separately.

Every start/finish line has some kind of Scoring and Timing Tower. Some are as simple as a brick two story, others look like luxury boxes at a modern stadium, and everything in between. To imitate glass, use plastic painted black on one side. Glue the painted side of the plastic to the building.

Something that you find at every race track is a seating area, Bleachers and/or Grandstands. I made some of these for my very first track, but I always got the same comment from visitors, "Where are the people?" The only small figures I've found are for H.O. trains, but they aren't the right scale for this hobby. Without people, the seating areas look mighty lonesome. So I ended up removing the seating areas and have never used them since. Still, you may want them and they're easy enough to make. To make bleachers, cut several support sections and run strips of wood along the steps. The grandstand is achieved by dropping the bleachers into the building frame.

Some real race tracks have elaborate Garage/Paddock areas. The big tracks have long buildings that are essentially individual garages, side by side, sharing a common flat roof.

Many real tracks in Europe feature a combination of Pit and Garage. These buildings are side by side in a row with one side open to the pit lane and a seating area on the roof. Above the garage's pit opening, there are signs with the name of the team that's using that stall. Adding this to your track is an impressive touch. The numbers and letters can be done on your computer and rubber cemented in place.

Hey, you have to eat, right! At the real tracks, there's lots of little Vendor Stands like this, where you can get anything from food to souvenirs.

A lot of tracks have pedestrian bridges that go over the racing surface. I don't recommend using these because of the car antennas. But some real tracks do have a Tunnel that gets folks from one side of the track to the other. You need two, one on each side of the road surface and outside the barriers. Again, really easy to make with balsa wood.

You can add realism to the barriers with Chain Link Fencing (nails and screen). Go down the length of the barrier, pounding in nails on the top side of equal height and at equal distances. (I prefer "brads" for this job.) Your hardware store sells window screen. You can buy any length you want. Once home, cut the screen into strips to match up with the height of the nails and the length of the barriers. Bathtub sealer is great for most glue jobs because when it dries, it's flexible. In this case, I recommend a five minute epoxy glue. That will dry much faster, hold tight and be a bit less messy. Put a small amount of epoxy on the end nail, attach the strip of screen and let dry before moving on to the next nail.

Of course there's the one thing that you really can never escape, Advertising. You can cut sponsor logos from magazines and stick them anywhere that works with rubber cement.

There's all sorts of things that you may have laying around the house that can be useful in decoration, like an empty cigarette box. Take a sheet of clear plastic and poke holes in the corners. Run thick white, yellow or light gray thread out of the opening of the box and glue that and the box shut. Glue the box in the middle of the plastic. Run the thread through the holes and glue on the top side of the plastic. When the glue dries, take your blade and cut the excess thread from the bottom. You end up with a Micro scale version of the Inflatable Advertising Display. This idea of mounting things on clear plastic works great. You can get sheets of it at the hobby store. The plastic blends into what ever surface you put it on. I used to have a collection of things mounted this way that I only put out for actual racing events.

And last, but not least, as long as you've gone to the trouble of building such a beautiful toy. Give it a name and put up a Sign. I did this one with two left over pieces of barrier wood and lettering made on the computer paint program.

This is the completed track that currently resides in my basement, Timberland MotorPlex. Tracks that I've constructed in the past have had a lot of detail, using all the things I've told you about. This one is mostly for the kids and it's going to take punishment so I've kept it pretty simple. Still, as you see, adding just a little of the detail work makes a huge difference in the finished product. Simple, cheap, fast, and practical. You can go back and take a look at the original construction by clicking on the track, then click again to come back.

Multi-Levels: Truth is, you won't find very many flat tracks in the real world. The only ones that I know of are airport and street courses. So building a multi-level track is the ultimate in miniature construction. If you want banked turns and the ability to go up and down hills, it will be a tougher job than what I've shown you so far. It will also cost you a few more hours and coins to build. But, if you've gotten as far as building a track like the one above, I know you're thinking about it.

Like before, start with the size. This time we'll need a plywood foundation board and a sheet of masonite (or 1/4" plywood) of equal size. The idea is to cut out the racing surface from the masonite. You use blocks of 2"x 4" cut to various angles and heights, then glued to the foundation board to support the racing surface. You don't have to, but boxing in the whole thing with some 1/2" boards is a really good idea. It helps in the landscaping and provides the possibility of converting the track into a table as described in Tables.

Obviously, landscaping is a major part of this project. You can get books from the library or hobby store about it. There's a lot of different techniques, this is just one. Looking at the constructed and secure road surface, you can sort of see the "lay of the land." Use more 2"x 4" blocks cut to the height you want for a few foundation points. Then take a sheet of window screen and staple it to the racing surface. Shape the screen into the terrain you want and secure to the foundation points with staples.

Your local hobby/craft store has a product that is like powdered paper-mache. Just add water, mix it up, and spread it over the screen. When it's dry, it pretty hard stuff and it's textured too. The rest is all paint and detail.

This isn't all that complicated to do, really. The design is the key. When you build something like this don't over design. If you want a multi-circuit track, you need to pay attention to the driving capability of the turns for all the circuits. Don't over bank turns or make dramatic changes in height with the racing surface in a short space. Be conservative in your designing. Don't glue anything until it's been thoroughly fitted. Above all, take your time. You have the potential for a masterpiece.

Tables: One of the neat things you can do is construct your track so it can do double duty as a table. This will cover your creation nicely as well as provide a great work area or play table for the kids. Make a frame of 1/2" boards, wide and long enough for the track to rest snug on the inside. Attach some 2"x 4"s with screws or nails and white glue to the frame to support the track board. At the corners, use some angle irons either on the inside or outside to keep the top part tight. Then drop in the track and secure it with screws or nails. For the top cover, use 1/2" plywood cut slightly longer and wider than the track. Turn the top cover upside down and attach pieces of 2"x 4" in the corners to keep it from moving around.

You should design the track with a place in the middle for support, you can attach a piece of 2"x 4" cut to the proper height for the middle support of the cover. If you want to support from the bottom, you can disguise the 2"x 4" as a track building.

If you've haven't installed legs to get the track off the floor, now is the time. If you have already installed legs, you can change the height with a second set. Attach the mounting brackets to the bottom side of the track foundation board.

If you're constructing a 4'x 8' track the top has to be inserted. There will need to be supports on the inside, mounted on the track foundation.