If I were to try and create a dio of this scene, what should I use to create the bridge?
Picture?
Bill,
He is talking about the oversized half Dunlap tire over the race track that is a walk bridge. It looks like a giant tire cut in half.
P.S. - Hope you are feeling better, and on the road to a SPEEDY RECOVERY!
Jay,
To answer your question…there are a lot of ways to create this project. The easier route would be use a sheet of basswood that can be found at any craft store. You could go “old school” with hardware wire and plaster paris and then sand it smooth. Basswood is cheap, easy to work with and not very messy. Or 1/2 inch blue or pink construction foam insulation would work…kinda on the pricey side.
This might sound crazy but depending on the scale what about using a road racing or regular bicycle tire? They come in widths from 3/4 - 2 inches. Find one with the right tread cut it to size? IDK
My mistake.
And I would be building these kits.
I’d like to replicate the famous 1-2-3 finish of the Ford GT40’s, taking overall win, index of thermal efficiency and generally proving what Henry Ford Jr. wanted over Enzo Ferrari.
Course I’d want the correct livery and numbers for each car.
It’s going to be sharp Jay. And Griffin had a great idea about the bike tire. But all depends on the scale. Good luck, and when you do start hopefully you’ll do a WiP.
So in landscape dioramas it’s a lot of math. To get the point of view right and perspective working there’s some work to do.
Looks like your Ford is 1/24.
That bridge I‘d more likely estimate at about 1/4 of a circle. And probably more than 100 feet across. That suggests a radius somewhat less let’s guess 75 feet. That’s 3 feet in your model scale. And about 4 feet end to end.
But unless the car is passing under it you don’t care. If that’s the plan, you can scale it down a little. But still it’ll be a sizable radius and length, bigger than anything out there tire wise, short of farm equipment.
As a background, there’s a couple of advantages, one being that you only need to make one side. And it can be a lot smaller and simpler.
I would suggest you mock up your dio. Get a big piece of paper, draw the road on it and put a car about the same size where you want it. Then pour a beer, sit back and think about what makes sense. I’d think any distance more than 3 feet between the two is going to be a lot to deal with.
Draw the bridge at your first guess, a simple sector of a ring, and set it up, then get back and look at it from track level. Fool around with that until you get what looks good.
Then you can start thinking about how to make the thing. Look at stuff during your trips to Home Depot. Maybe a piece of 6" PVC sewer pipe in a 90 degree sweep would yield a section. Or a section of 4" dryer flex vent, although that seems problematic.
Oh, and it was raining too.
If you ever can get out here for Car Week in August, there’s usually a chance to see an older GT40 run. Nothing like it.
Good luck, great project.
My idea is to have the 3 GT40’s going downhill with a Ferrari in the background (possibly under the bridge).
And I wouldn’t be trying to replicate that photo, since I think rain would add an extra level of complication.
I have seen vintage GT40’s race, both at Mid Ohio vintage weekend and then at Elkhart Lake for the runoffs.
Great bridges I’ve spectated by both of them. The secord one is a bit easier to build I would think, or or course you might need a cycle or motorcycle tyre to achieve the look.
Rooster tails would be tough.
You could get a 275 GTB in 1/43 scale back there under the bridge. That’d make the bridge a lot smaller too.
Yes, I figured I would get a smaller scale Ferrari bringing up the rear.
Maybe a 10 - 12 inch bike tire or one off a set of fairly good sized training wheels.