Someone on YouTube mentioned that it would be nice to see a view of the track layout. When one of my friends came over to complete the photo-shoot we took about 400 shots of the layout in Monochrome, Colour, Flash photography and so and so forth. The next shot was taken stood on top of my step ladder while I grabbed hold of his ankles and tried to steady him from falling. I mean, think about it, can you imagine the damage Santhosh would have done if he had hit the layout from that height?
Don't forget folks; this is a 'Compact Themed' layout, and is not a replica of Monaco track. Theme elements include the sweeping tunnel section that runs under the elevated chicane, the yacht in the harbour, the chicane corner with the 'bet-clic' advertising image, and some French language signage and 1;32nd scale Monaco posters. The vintage car by the harbour, the fast cars on the track, the yacht, the girls, the hotels, and the helicopter, all coming together to make for the essence of the super rich. There are two photographs taken on the Monaco Layout on the 19 May 2012 Blog Post in the Home page. One of these is a monochrome of a Vanwall and the other is a stage cameo for my home insurance images of each of the vehicles in my slot car collection.
The yacht is one of the central themes of the layout. The water effect was achieved by painting various shades of acrylic paint onto the plywood baseboard and then layering multiple layers of varnish over the acrylic paint. The yacht was a discarded toy which had to have the paint stripped off the hull and the plastic cabin painted. The decking barrier was constructed by drilling the deck, cutting and drilling pieces of plastic to glue of the deck 'holes' and then inserting cut and drilled cocktail sticks into these holes. All of the drilling was done with a normal DIY hand drill. Wire was then thread through the cocktail sticks. The plastic shields on parts of the boat were clear plastic pieces cut to size, drilled and painted with blue acrylic. These were then attached with white cotton thread laced through the holes. The deckhand is made by Graupner (Part No. 375.42). The bucket, box, and bag are all hand cast. If you look closely you might see the sponge and water in the bucket.
The final scene
The paint on the hull being stripped down
All masked off during the airbrush spraying process
The drilled cocktail sticks and plastic base sections in place
A good view of the water effect
The 'Graupner' Deckhand
