Indoor crawl spot at one of our LHS's

[youngblood]

Talked to the owner of Hobbytown Frederick a couple weeks ago, and he expressed a willingness to build a small crawling mountain in the back of his store. He made it seem like there wasnt a whole lot of room to spare though.

I also talked to Mimi down at The Track in Gaithersburg yesterday, and She too seemed very interested in building a crawler course in her store. I think she has more room to spare than Hobbytown, but The Track is a little further down the road for most of us. Also, it isnt uncommon for her to be open until 10:00 on a Friday or Saturday night if we had a late comp.

Mimi said she just got back from the I-hobby expo, and talked to the Axial guys about what she would need to build a course. She's looking for large foam blocks if anybody know where to get some. There was talk of setting up garage courses for the winter months last sunday, but I think a course at a hobby shop would be way better.

-Brian

[MDcrawler08]

that would be alsome if we could get her to build a course. foam blocks? real rocks would be way better but i guess it would still be better than standing out in the cold.

[B4wheeler]

Brian,

I talked to Mimi today and she told me the same exact thing. She also stated that she knew we were at Sugarloaf Mtn last Sunday. It is good to see that she is active on the crawler forums and at the fore front of the crawler scene......

[youngblood]

Dont get too excited, I told her we were up there.

Still, I think she is our best shot at an indoor crawl spot this winter. Plus, Im sure when all the carpet car kids see our rockin awesome foam mountain, they will come over to the dark side...

[K Riccardi]

From what I have seen spray foam is where it is at for a indoor coarse.

[sjohn]

I talked to Mimi about this also. I gave her some ideas on where to get the foam locally. I don't think she wants to put too much money into this project so we may have to get resourceful to get this done. I'll keep an eye out at work for some foam. If you all need any help building or anything let me know, she is just down the road from my work. Also, we may be able to do something with all the tires she has out front.

[champ7times]

one of the rc mags a couple of mouths back showed how to build a indoor track.i think it was rc driver or something.i will have to look for it. the course was portable and stuff. gaithersburg is a good ride for me but iam wiling to drive for crawling i also think that the spray foam would be a good idea you can carve and shape it. i work for balto co so as for real rocks we have a crap load at the shop. i am getting my back yard ready for a small course against the shed now post pics later.

[gtbrian]

If anyone lives near the water. The large foam blocks usually used for buoyancy under floating docks is probably perfect, and you can sometimes find that stuff around.

[MDcrawler08]

i went and talked to mimi today and she said that she is going to build a course, its not a maybe anymore!!!! she also said she is working on getting supplies now and when she does she wants help buliding it.

[Heavy Metal Doc]

Originally Posted by MDcrawler08

i went and talked to mimi today and she said that she is going to build a course, its not a maybe anymore!!!! she also said she is working on getting supplies now and when she does she wants help buliding it.

I guess I finally have a reason to go to Mimi's...

[bullet1231]

this is good news. since i really hate the cold, and i was really thinking of retiring my crawlers for the winter, so i guess not this year! see u guys at mimis!

[sjohn]

I was just in there today and she has a bunch of foam now. It looks and feels kind of like the spray foam insulation in a can. She was saying she needs to find/buy some glue and get some paint for it. Who is going to design the layout?

[youngblood]

Here is Mimi's foam. We need to meet down there and start setting up a course. She says she'll be getting more.

[MDcrawler08]

this is so cool that she is going to bulid a course. i can meet someone there after work one day this week to help do whatever. i could be there around 4ish.

[speedemall]

what?!??!!!! About time somebody did this!!Where in the store will it be ?Mimi's is pretty short on room,if she would just sell me that outrun machine there'd be plenty of room then lol As far as this happening at hobbytown.......not in a million years!!Whenever there is an idea to bring more people into the store for any reason it never gets done thats why every other race class they start fails.

THANK YOU MIMI FOR CARING ABOUT THE CUSTOMERS!!!!!!!

[BigSki]

Those foam 'blocks' are used inside of shipping containers. When a shipping dept puts items into a crate or cardboard box, these bags get activated and jammed into the corners of the shipping box. They conform to the shape of whatever they expand up against. I would guess that a latex based caulk would "glue" the blocks together. You could then use a hydrocal plaster mixture to coat the foam rocks to give a realistic 'harshell' topcoat. This is a simular technique used by model railroaders. I've personally used the extruded blue and pink foam insulation sheets to bult scenery for a model railroad.

I once experimented with adding granite dust to the hyrdocal plaster, it made the perfect "granite" rocks I'd even seen. The plus with using the same technique here would be the granite dust would give good traction for climbing.

[gtbrian]

You could mix some sand into the paint to get better traction too.

[bigdodge88]

Hello everyone,

I'm in Oakland, where is Mimi's store located?

Thanks,
Justin

[speedemall]

Originally Posted by bigdodge88

Hello everyone,

I'm in Oakland, where is Mimi's store located?

Thanks,
Justin

Track The


www.rctrack.com

16806 Oakmont Ave
Gaithersburg, MD 20877
(301) 417-9630

[bigdodge88]

Thanks for the link speedemall. It might be a while before I could make it there, 3 hours from me.:-(