Carletta Trains
How I Made the Slide
The slide wasn't too tough to make since I got creative and used a picket fence with the pickets cut off for the ladder and got creative with boiling water to shape the slide.
Here you see the basic structure of the slide. The back legs were cut as one piece from a sheet of styrene which is stronger than if I had cut two legs and glued them together.
The slide's bend was created by cutting a strip from a thin piece of styrene and then submerging it in boiling water using tweezers. I used a second pair of tweezers to grab the bottom of the strip and bent the strip until I was happy with the shape. Once out of the water it firmed up instantly.
I also cut a small piece to hold the slide at the bottom.
Next I added the ladder and some pieces of styrene to help add strength to the slide.
I placed it on top of a piece of paper and used modeling cement to glue the bottom pieces into place. These are needed to keep the front of the slide and the ladder securely in place. I also cut a piece from a sheet of styrene that is half way up the back legs and is attached to the ladder. This will keep me from breaking the ladder if I were to hold the slide with too much pressure on the center of the ladder.
The ladder is actually a picket fence with the tops and bottoms cut off.
Now that the construction was done it was time to paint. I wanted it to be a fun looking slide like you might see in a nice playground. I painted the slide using a color called "Aluminum" from Model Masters. I used the same paint on the steps of the ladder, but painted it blue on the edges. When that paint dried I used Testors "Dullcote" spray paint to take the gloss off of the finish.
Click the images below to see the slide in greater detail.
The picture on the left shows the slide after I glued it to the playground base with modeling cement and painted it black. I built the slide higher than it needed to be because I planned on covering the base with "woodchips" which would being the ground up to the right level.
The picture on the right shows what it looks like when it's installed. The "woodchips" brought the ground up to the bottom of the slide and it has the appearance that the legs and ladder are rooted into the ground. This is exactly the look I was going for.
As one person commented, they wouldn't let their child go on this slide as it appears to be a little steep. I pointed out that the slide itself also didn't have any sides. These are the sacrifices that have to be made when working with a scale as small as Z Scale.
