Wow, a day without work! First time I’ve had one of those for a while! I got up on Thanksgiving day almost as early as I do on a work day and ran down to the toy room to get a jump on a project I’ve been waiting to start for months! I kicked it off by adding some decals and adverts to the back side of one of the tall white barricades that runs along the chicane coming past the paddock area of the track; this is a stretch of that really cool adhesive barrier made by Innovative Hobbies, which is printed with various race equipment logos on one side but is blank on the other. Previously that blank side was fitted only with a DUNLOP logo which was a glued-on spare from the “tire bridge” kit, but it’s now been fitted with a cool vintage ad for Aurora Thunderjets, as well as some other familiar logos; I’m especially fond of the Lucky Strike cigarette ad on the far end, as there was a period in my early 20’s when your humble blogger smoked that brand! L.S.M.F.T. Y’all!
With that done, it was time to start the landscaping! The first step was roll out some of my brown modeling clay and mash it down along the track sides to create the look of a dirt embankment (this is something I’ve been considering doing along the perimeter of the entire track on both sides, although the amoung of clay it would take to do that makes my head spin!) And once that was done, it was time to start masking the track!
When you want to do a project like this right, you have to do it slowly! As I got started laying down the first layer of adhesive and grass for what will be the Drag City Raceway Carnival, I realized within only minutes of starting that I’d miscalculated something!
Originally my idea was to use spray adhesive for the first application of grass, but I chickened out on that worrying about the adhesive getting on the track, which would probably ruin it. I decided instead to just brush on the glue and then sprinkle the turf on top. Of course I still masked the area of the track I was working on and did several very small “test applications.” So, its not that it didn’t work, but since I wanted to do one small area at a time, I quickly found that as I used a brush to apply the next expansion of glue, I was mucking up the grass I had just laid down: the very thing my model-railroader friend Harrison warned me about! More to the point, however, I was already looking ahead to the second application-this has to be layered, after all-and again I realized that running a brush over to the first coat of grass wasn’t going to work.
After only a few applications, I regretted not having bought a spray bottle made for this sprayable glue, so I promptly ordered one online, although it might not get here until late next week or even early the following week due to the holidays. I will need this to put a coat over glue over the first layer of grass to lay down the second layer, and the additional dusting of yellow turf, which will help give the area a more “parched” look befitting the climate of this region of southern California. The idea is that toward the narrowest part of the area, the yellow turf will become more prominent and take over, then fade back into the sandy dirt look of the cork right before reaching “Dead Man’s Curve,” the last sharp turn before the long straightaway and the site of a group of spectators, the tableau of which I’m especially fond.
I was afraid to do it, but since I didn’t have that pump-style spray bottle, I masked the area even more carefully and decided to bring in the big can of spray adhesive to try to get this first layer down. This was potentially dangerous, because the power of the blast of the aerosol was likely to “scatter” the loose turf that hadn’t adhered to the adhesive, but I was very careful, moved very slowly, and did only a few inches at a time, waiting for everything to dry before proceeding to the next area.
It wasn’t completely without incident: the aerosol did blow a small amount of the loose grass through my masking and onto the track, but it was only trace amounts, and I was able to clean it up afterward using my little Diry Devil vacuum cleaner. Once I was satisfied the glue was dry, I used this same tool to suck up the “excess” grass, again being vary careful not to get too close to the table and sucking up the glued down grass!
By the time I was done it looked pretty good…for a first layer! Now, unfortunatley, I need to leave the masking in place for the next round, but since I can’t proceed with that until I have that pump-style spray bottle for the glue, the track is closed for construction for the next couple of weeks.
And that’s OK; I’ll be spending most of T-giving weekend out of town and my work schedule for the next couple of weeks is so intense that I won’t have any time to race anyway. When my tools arrive, though, I’ll find some time to lay down that next layer of grass and the yellow turf accents too, and then clean that up after it dries, then leaving me to remove the masking and do the final cleanup. And once that’s done, I’ll be ready to start assembling the snack and refreshment booths and placing the cool rides! And then? The last step: peeps…lots more peeps to buy and paint and place all over the area, enjoying the carnival!
Thanksgiving is often a bittersweet holiday for your humble blogger…and even more so since I lost Dale, whom I spent 2 awesome T-Givings with in 2021 and ‘22: two old men with similar interests whose families were too far away to visit economically, we made great company for each other while he was here. Now that he’s gone, this holiday seems even dimmer than it used too. And yet, I am still thankful: thankful for my job and the income it gives me to live in my house, where I have the space to keep my toys, and the wherewithall to acquire them, to build the Toy Kingdom that makes me happy. And I’m thankful for the invite from a friend to spend the holiday with his family, something I’m looking forward too. I am loved; I hope the other people in my life who I love dearly have a good day themselves, and I’ll keep in touch with them, and with my family too, via phone and pictures to share in their feast “virtually”…and I’m thankful for that, too!
When it comes to spray bottles, I’ve gone through a lot of them and what I found works the best is an old Windex bottle. So many of the others seemed to stop pumping quickly. With the Windex bottle, I seem to be able to spray at a steeper downward angle and with the trigger style, I can control the flow better, even down to a drizzle. I think it’s coming out great and layering the different colors will give you a very realistic look. As you move along, you will develop a technique that works for you and your track. You have a lot of nice breaks that divide the surface area into sections which I think Is good. I did the same thing, one section at a time, I’d put down the glue so the turf would stick, sprinkled the base layer, then a second later more thinly to give some color variation, then spray it down with my Windex bottle. Then do any touch up as needed. I think your doing great and really glad you were able to have a day off to have some fun for yourself!