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Based on @bengood921’s post over in the 2019 Q4 Business Meeting thread (where you should DEFINITELY check out the pictures), here’s a refined idea for the Q4 Build Challenge, complete with springboard ideas for individual builders.
2019 Q4 BUILD CHALLENGE: FINAL LAP
This prospective build challenge is to use one 32×32 baseplate or roadplate to build a connectable section of racing areas.
RACING SECTIONS
The ONLY restriction is the racing area: a 12 stud wide racing area connecting two corners of a regular baseplate, the rest being non-racing surface. That’s a 20 x 32 stripe through the center or a regular baseplate, from one edge to the other, and the surface should be flat so we can place them side by side. The edges of the racing area should be marked in some way from edge to edge so that there is a consistent, centered 20 stud wide racing area between the racing boundaries. Barrels, cones, floating space mines, fences, force fields, dashed tiles, whatever! Themes and racing locations do NOT have to be consistent from plate to plate. We can have asphalt, grass, sand, water, air, or space right next to each other. Straight, T, curve, and crossing roadplates of the newest series are allowed, as well as ANY color of flat 32×32 baseplate.Racing sections take a lot less time to build than you’d think, as it’s the racing objects and track that take up the primary focus, with most of the track being empty space. The edges can be as wild as any baseplate can hold, and, as our displays at S.W. Randall have proven, only needs a facade of 2-4 studs for a road section to look good.
I recommend a six stud boundary on each side so that regular baseplates can connect to roadplates. On a standard roadplate, six studs is plenty, and would cut down on the build time required to fill that one edge. This is even less true if a T or a cross roadplate is used. A builder can create a converted intersection with overhanging lights, for example, for a build that takes minimal brick that could be refined nicely over two weeks. Conversely, a curve roadplate has a LOT of studs to work with, if someone wants to do something like drift racing or superbikes leaning through a corner.
NON-RACING AREAS
It’s also a little bit of a challenge building vertically using few studs like that. So if a builder wants to make a section dense with detail, so that might be fun challenge literally on the side. Colored curbs or posts, passthrough arches, flags, lights, checkpoints, and signage are also options to frame the racing surface. It could be realistic racing, with an accident, or video game racing with powerups on the track. Any mood works.RACING IDEAS
Clearly, road vehicle racing is only one kind of racing. Here are some ideas to spark your imagination:
* Desert racing on a tan baseplate
* Racing boats on water on a blue baseplate
* Racing planes atop a blue baseplate with clouds atop it.
* Horse racing.
* Go karts.
* Marathoners with cheering spectators and a relief station and a mile marker.
* Star Wars scout trooper speeder bikes.
* Harry Potter quidditch racing.
* A motorbike racing alongside a train.
* Space skiffs racing among an asteroid field.
* A classic car Grand Prix at a more… sedate speed.Anything, and I mean ANYTHING can be raced. Lawn mowers. Hot dog stands. Moon rovers. Dudes and dudettes on sailboards, windsurfing. Giant Mechs shooting at each other. ANYthing.
JUDGING
Racing in different eras and racing with different things and technologies was going to be my idea for SWR IV, so I am into this and would judge. My judging would be based on the well rounded and executed scenery and theme of that track section unto itself, the vibrancy of the racers, and a sense of speed, agility, or ruggedness of the racers involved. Bonus for reference to reference to a racing league that actually exists or an equivalent backstory.TIME BONUS
Some of these can be accomplished with VERY little build time, as long as you have the racing vehicles, animals, or people to start with. That’s the key.I think building race track sections in a two week span is AOK.
RACING SECTIONS
The ONLY restriction is the racing area: a 12 stud wide racing area connecting two corners of a regular baseplate, the rest being non-racing surface. That’s a 20 x 32 stripe through the center or a regular baseplate, from one edge to the other, and the surface should be flat so we can place them side by side. The edges of the racing area should be marked in some way from edge to edge so that there is a consistent, centered 20 stud wide racing area between the racing boundaries. Barrels, cones, floating space mines, fences, force fields, dashed tiles, whatever!Just so it’s stated: in the photos Ben posted, the track is NOT centered on the 32×32. Rather, it’s pushed “forward”, so one side of the baseplate has more room to be built up and the other side is largely empty (4 studs wide) for viewing at the convention… not saying Rich’s #setinstone rules should be modified, necessarily… but maybe?
I came across this one recently and I thought it might be a possibility as a build challenge at some point. It’s basically a straight-line race track where each baseplate is a different theme. I don’t know if it’s a good one for this meeting though, if it’s November 2, we’re less than two weeks out, so it’s not much time to build.
RACING SECTIONS
The ONLY restriction is the racing area: a 12 stud wide racing area connecting two corners of a regular baseplate, the rest being non-racing surface. That’s a 20 x 32 stripe through the center or a regular baseplate, from one edge to the other, and the surface should be flat so we can place them side by side. The edges of the racing area should be marked in some way from edge to edge so that there is a consistent, centered 20 stud wide racing area between the racing boundaries. Barrels, cones, floating space mines, fences, force fields, dashed tiles, whatever!Just so it’s stated: in the photos Ben posted, the track is NOT centered on the 32×32. Rather, it’s pushed “forward”, so one side of the baseplate has more room to be built up and the other side is largely empty (4 studs wide) for viewing at the convention… not saying Rich’s #setinstone rules should be modified, necessarily… but maybe?
I came across this one recently and I thought it might be a possibility as a build challenge at some point. It’s basically a straight-line race track where each baseplate is a different theme. I don’t know if it’s a good one for this meeting though, if it’s November 2, we’re less than two weeks out, so it’s not much time to build.
Stated this so builders can use the standard roadplates they may own. It is a maximum use of what we’ve got, as roadplates are made for this, and thus, fixed roadplates determine the pattern.
I suppose that with most builders now, ten days out from the meeting, and with Christmas event commitments in play, I think it best to save the racing idea for Q1 in fevor of a much lighter brick and time intensive concept for the upcoming meeting on 11/2.
I didn’t have time to work on my post for this yesterday, and I’m about to leave town. I should have time to work on it this weekend. The short version is, while I like Rich’s enthusiasm for this one, it sounds to me like he is describing a different (although still great) project from the one I was proposing, cause he’s going in directions I had not intended. More to come…
Yes, yes! This is just to maximize creativity, including as many styles and themes as possible, all within a “racing” theme, while making sure builders can use what they have. Less attention on the facades, more action on the track, resulting in less build time for what is a show just for ourselves.
I think this could be a good thing for Q1 instead.
Can someone please incorporate pictures of the examples into this thread? A visual is several orders of magnitude more valuable than verbiage.
P.S. Matt, see what I did there?
>> P.S. Matt, see what I did there?
(I’m confused, what did you do? I know my name isn’t Matt, but I wanna be included.)
>> Can someone please incorporate pictures of the examples into this thread? A visual is several orders of magnitude more valuable than verbiage.
I posted three pics in this post:
My original post here was late October. Between reading MOC cards in the photos and using Google to search, I found a Flickr id for somebody who I thought was likely to be the person in charge of the project. I sent him a message, got a confirmation reply a couple weeks later (I think his name is Jason), told him why I was interested – specifically, that we were thinking about using it as a build challenge and that I was wondering if there was a written standard we could use as a starting point. After another delay, he got back to me, with a very lengthy reply, just a couple days before Thanksgiving.
I have to admit, I haven’t read it yet. December was super busy and I kept putting it off til I mostly forgot about it. Of course I will eventually and send him a reply, but in the moments when I did think about it, I also didn’t feel a whole lot of urgency because by that point, Rich had come up with his proposal for this challenge that, while worthwhile, is fundamentally different from the one I’d originally proposed, and so I didn’t think any information Jason’d sent would be particularly useful to us at this point.
I suppose I could read it now and report back. I can’t go to bed til the dryer is done.
(I don’t know why my link in the previous post isn’t working right. If I edit the post, page 2 and post #33863 or whatever it is are both clearly right there in the link, but as soon as I click submit, it goes back to a general link for just the thread. The posts with the pics are on page 2 if you really wanna look at them.)
Any pics of the entries?
@amplef0rth
@zaximillian
@rcgrier3406Bob built the Star Wars and Harry Potter entries. John Singer built Excitebike. Frost built the frost-looking one.
Wow I like the variety of themes! The retro motocross is cool – I knew someone would build a ramp. Now the question is which of the racers wok the race? My money is on the X-Wing…
Tom’s pics have also been posted in the LUG Gallery. To view them there, click on the “Gallery” tab at the top right corner of this page, and then open the “Q1 2020 Challenge – Final Lap” album, which is on page 4.
Race results:
– 1st: Death Star Trench Run.
– 2nd: ExciteBike.
– 3rd: Frostrovery.
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