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This year (2005) I played my first game of Carabande. It is a sort of racing game where you have to shoot wooden disks over a racing track.
I knew from that moment on that I simply had to have a copy of the game because I had so much fun playing this game.
Unfortunately the game isn’t on sale in the shops anymore so I bought three copies in total on E-bay. I know, I know, I always have to exaggerate but then
again I already had some neat obstacles for the game in mind.
Here are the results so far;
The basic game consists out of a set of normal straight and curved tracks. There is also an action set whith a ramp and two chicanes.
Since this box is relatively rare and cost a lot on E-bay I decided to make my own action set.
The chicanes:
With my dremel drill I transformed two regular racing track pieces in to an “X” and “Y” chicane. Since the tracks are made from MDF it is quiet easy to cut
the forms in to the track.
Next I made a few short track pieces for creating crossings in to the track. (The more we can annoy one another in a racing game the better it is)
The ramp was made out of another two straight track pieces. By simply gluing some support underneath you create a nice ramp that ables you to make jumps
over other tracks and again make the game a bit more difficult.
Now all this was simply copied from the original action set so not that original really. Next step is to create something really special and I guess I can
call this next hazard on the Carabande track a real original one.
The Looping:
Preperation:
Before starting to work on the looping I knew from the start that I had to try and make a track that would consist out of one piece to avoid irregularities
in the track. So I started with a visit to the local hardware store in search of the right material.
I looked at thin triplex wood but this was not an option. Something however started to brew in my head when I walked toward the plumbing department.
Here I found plastic tubes and rings that could be transformed in to a looping. However the diameter of the larges rings where far from the ideal size I
had in mind for this project. Then I saw the large buckets way back in the store. There I saw the looping hidden in a big black bucket that you normally
use to mix plaster or concrete. So for 5 euro (about 7,5 dollars) I had the most important ingredient for this project.
With an electric saw I removed the upper edge of the bucket and cut a wide strip out of the side of this bucket next. I had to cut a wider strip then
needed since the strip was somewhat curved. From this strip I cut the right size. I focussed on the width of this strip. It had to be exactly as wide as
half the width of a regular racing track. (Measured between the railings)
I used one original straight track from the game and used my Dremel drill to cut out two squares as you can see in the next picture. Since the track is
made out of MDF it is simple to actual peel layers of the material from the track just deep enough that the plastic strip fits into the square and the
original track and the plastic curve fits perfectly without irregularity in the surface. To get the squares out of the track I used a screwdriver.
(It is actually that simple)
With a lot of wood glue and two large bar clamps the strip is glued to the track. Next is the support underneath the curve and the track. I used Styrodur
and cut it in a way that it fit well underneath the first part of the curve and the track underneath.
Once the bar clambs could be removed I could do a first test shot through the looping. What a great feeling when you see that is actually works.
However the second shot left the curve halfway and was flying straight to my head. So it is not a luxury to actually add a guard rail to the side.
For this I used triplex wood.
The guard rails again added more strength to the looping itself. I glued them with a kind of superglue on to the plastic track. I also made sure that
the rails would stick out on the outside as well. This was so I could now add little beams all around the outside of the looping in order to make the
entire construction again a bit more solid.
The final result;
The guard rails where painted in a similar colour as the original guard rails in the game. All the other parts where painted black. After that I applied two layers of wood varnish to protect the project from all those thousands of flying disks in the upcoming games.
So all I have to do now is play, play and play.
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