The heat, the smog and the traffic on the freeway of a southern California summer in the mid-1980s: my boyhood recreated in miniature!
Cool hipster dude strikes a pose with his ’66 Charger in the parking lot as he watches traffic go by on the main drag through town
There’s so much that’s new in and around the track that I hardly know where to start. Thing is, all the changes are fairly subtle; if you only surf onto this blog occasionally you might not even notice, but one thing you probably would say is, “man, this place is getting crowded!“
There’s more cars, more details, and a lot more people; the height of popularity of road racing may have been past by 1986, but anyone who thought Drag City’s best days were in the mirror would have been wrong; the crowds are bigger than ever!
New action at the Outlaw Garage, as a freshly restored Porsche 910 and a rare Alfa Romeo get final polishing before being delivered to their owners
Freshly painted 3D-Printed figures drying before joining the crowd at the track!
So, all fantasy aside: I haven’t been racing much lately. My friend Shanon and I get together on occasion and run stockers, but the big muscle and sports car fleets have been sitting quietly in their cases lately. I still run my old Road Crew cars in the mornings before work (although lately even that’s been disrupted for the last few days by the water in the basement issue), but I’ve had enough other things vying for my attention that I haven’t run a tournament in a while.
That should be changing soon, but I am facing a busy summer, with 2 trips out of town and a visit from a friend from far away, so with that, and work, and everything else, time is tight. So what I have been spending my time on is the diorama, and here’s a look at some of the new scenes and details I’ve been adding here, there, and every little where!
Awesome new Auto World release, this ’65 Rambler Marlin is now in attendance in the parking lot. Scale correct and presented in a great color combo with good looking and well proportioned wheels, you just knew your humble blogger, the AMC nut, couldn’t resist this! A 2nd news crew from a local station is on the scene, standing next to their well-marked Dodge Tradesman….…while the original crew has a new camera dude and a new reporter babe to interview racers right at the VIP spectator stand. A “cable access” crew takes up position on the other side of the VIP grandstand, struggling to get their equipment set up before the action starts!In the interest of realism, I’ve added what has to be one of the ugliest cars ever made to the freeway near the track, in an appropriately ugly-and period correct-color. This Greenlight “Charlie’s Angels” release stayed in the package for a long time since I liked the collectibility of it, but I finally decided to open it and put it on the freeway just passing the couple in the ’57 T-Bird that got pulled over by a CHP.Another awesome Matchbox Collector, this blue and white MBZ service wagon brings back memories, because I remember seeing these cars on the road when I was a kid! Though it is a little “buried” sitting in front of the MBZ bay in pit row behind the pit wall, the presence of details where you have to seek them out is what adds realism and excitement to a diorama. Here, a well-dressed representative from Mercedes-Benz “Corporate” drops by in a fleet car to check on the progress of the classic 300SL being readied for an upcoming raceA new cheering dude stands in the bed of the Chevy “square body” at Dead Man’s Curve egging the racers on, while over on the water tower mound, a couple in a well-used Jeep relaxes with an elevated view of the action; across from them an amateur film maker uses his own Super 8 camera to film the back straightaway from the bed of his lifted Dodge Power WagonAlong the straightaway to pit row a pair of crew members signal to their racers to come in, while at the starting gates two flaggers, one with the yellow caution and one with the green “all go” get ready to jump in the event of a wreckAlongside the Jaguar pit bay the “Michelin Men” unload stacks of racing tires from their custom GMC delivery van, while on the other side of pit row, a pair of big and thick tow truck drivers stand by their own GMC watching the action, ready to head out for a recovery if someone hits the wallThe drivers of the pace car cheer on the action, while the track’s “money men” stand outside the VIP grandstand counting debits and creditsAt Wardglenn General, another racer who’s had a bad day gets lifted out of an ambulance and triaged right in the courtyard before his stretcher is wheeled into the emergency entrance, while across the street, two young men taking a break from work at the hardware store lean against the side of the building watching all the racing equipment being hauled into the competitor’s entrance to the inspection stationFrom the parking lot to the infield to the inspection area to the paddock, the whole place is buzzing with activity!
So there you go race fans, another exciting day at the track! The action around the area is getting to be almost as exciting as the racing itself! Now that so many people are in attendance, it would be terrible not to run a tournament! I’m waiting for a few more new purchases to arrive, and then I think it’s gonna be time to get down to some racing!
As the summer season opens, the inspection station is running at full capacity!
One thought on “DIORAMA DEVELOPMENTS: More Highs and Tableaus”
All of this is SO great! You can really see the action in these tableau’s! There are so many details it’s a feast for the eyes with something interesting going on everywhere. The figures that you get and paint are amazing, like the guy on the stretcher. All this really adds so much to the story of Drag City. I had to take a second look at the hipster picture, that looked so real. Job well done Bud!
All of this is SO great! You can really see the action in these tableau’s! There are so many details it’s a feast for the eyes with something interesting going on everywhere. The figures that you get and paint are amazing, like the guy on the stretcher. All this really adds so much to the story of Drag City. I had to take a second look at the hipster picture, that looked so real. Job well done Bud!