Construction Continues On The Flipper

Work continues on our first attraction, The Flipper. Here you can see that we have added the motor and mechanism that controls all of the motion. Our happy dog, Sprite, thought that the main piece of this device looked like a great chew toy and we found it all crunched up in his mouth. I had a lovely time bringing it back to life (the mechanism...not the dog). Grrrrr!

Then it was time to put the decals on the vehicle wheel. Love that racing flag look.

 Fences were then put up. Here's a hint if you put one of these together. Skip this step until much later! I can't tell you how many times I have broken these fences as I worked on the model. Had I waited until most of it was done this wouldn't have happened.

 Now I have added the vehicle wheel and rigged up the motor to see if it works. It does! But, it doesn't run smoothly. More work will be needed on this.

While I ponder that, I purchased some nice candy-colored airbrush paint and painted the ride vehicles. On the left you can see I have started to put one together.

We'll get back to the vehicles later, but right now, it's time to construct the scaffolding that exists on the back of the attraction. I suppose, if I was to be totally realistic, I wouldn't add this part, as it makes the ride look temporary. Without it, the ride would look more like a permanent structure. But I liked the look of the scaffolding so on it went. In this photo you can see I took four bars and held them together with painter's tape so that I could glue them in place.

 Here I start to place the bars on the backside of the ride.

Over half of the scaffolding is finished. Take a peek over the wall and you will see the ride vehicles have been put into place! Stay tuned for more updates!