Hockey Rink

That rink is cool! (pun intended)...for circles (and sponsors)  I think you will have to go with decals made on your printer.  I have searched for O size hockey players, with no luck.  If the ice is being resurfaced, they would be on the bench or in the locker room.  You could modify sitting O scale drivers for the players on the bench.  Dept 56 makes a small, animated skating pond w/ 2 hockey players, but is around $50. Good luck and keep me posted!  John A

I think your resurfacing effect is great. Not every feature of a layout needs to be "dramatic". IMO, some of the best work involves subtleties that are only noticed on a second or third look. These are hidden treasures that maintain interest over time and make your layout worthy of careful study.

As best I can judge from your photos, I think your effect is perfect.

This is really neat,   do not forget most hockey players when they are all suited up  are much larger than us regular guys . so you might be able to use playing figures that are a bit larger than 0 scale     I like the  Habs  idea   

originally from Montreal

The dull/gloss effect looks good. What its missing is the skate marks. I think if you put down a few layers of dullcoat then scratched it up with something like a wire brush, then sprayed it again so it had a little depth, you'd get what you're after. 

Go Leafs Go 

Nick said "The effect isn't as dramatic as I hoped"

what??! Dude you nailed the look!!!! That is awesome. Keep us posted with your progress. 

Thanks for the kind words!  I'm going to play around with it some more and start the permanent rink soon.  I like the idea of scratching the rough surface for skate marks.  And John A,  yes the players would be off the ice so that solves that.  But players on the bench would be cool.

This is turning out to be a fun project.

Nick

WOW!  really really nice.  Different and clever

- walt

Very impressive, Nick.

Now, can you make this animation happen?   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEdgiPEDa8w

George

You nailed it as far as the look goes. I'd like to see the finished product when it's ready.

Jim McC

My suggestion would be to take an Xacto blade and scribe the surface to represent the skate marks as suggested above. I would go deep on some and lighter on others. Then seal the entire surface with a dull coat and then mask and apply Future floor finish to the gloss areas that the Zamboni has done. Using Future (or what ever name it is now) is commonly used in the plastic modeling world for high gloss finish prior to laying down decals or weathering and the such. Obviously make sure the various layers don't react with one another. As far as players go, how about the refs and linesmen in the corner discussing all the missed calls they made or the pretty girls that some teams use nowadays the move the net around and shovel shaved ice out of the way? Very cool idea. 

TimDude posted:

My suggestion would be to take an Xacto blade and scribe the surface to represent the skate marks as suggested above. I would go deep on some and lighter on others. Then seal the entire surface with a dull coat and then mask and apply Future floor finish to the gloss areas that the Zamboni has done. Using Future (or what ever name it is now) is commonly used in the plastic modeling world for high gloss finish prior to laying down decals or weathering and the such. Obviously make sure the various layers don't react with one another. As far as players go, how about the refs and linesmen in the corner discussing all the missed calls they made or the pretty girls that some teams use nowadays the move the net around and shovel shaved ice out of the way? Very cool idea. 

This comment is a 10 bell save! 

George

Very cool, Nick.  (Don't forget the crease!)   

Fantastic!!!

Wow, you nailed the effect !!!   That is going to be cool indeed.   If you have a scene with the players on the ice, don't forget to drop a few hats for the hat trick!

Ed

Excellent work, I love it!  For the faceoff circles you could trace them using a margarine tub lid or a similar round plastic lid.  Then apply the red paint.  As Mike mentioned above, add the goal crease, and also the referee half circle along the boards at center ice.  You could also print and cut out your favorite team logo to put at the center ice faceoff circle.  (Just don't use the Rangers or the Penguins!)

Thanks for the advice!  Im starting another rink a little bit larger that will be the permanent one which I plan on building a roof for with lights.  Its going to be a project that takes me awhile mostly due to summer, but I'll start chipping away at it soon.  Thanks again for the ideas!

Nick

Traindiesel posted:

... (Just don't use the Rangers or the Penguins!)

I know you are a Flyers fan.  Most of the time they get my disdain.

These days they get my pity (sortof).    

George

That's ok George.  It's all part of the game!  LET'S GO FLYERS!!!!!

Heres the start to the bigger rink.  I wanted to do a scale rink (200'×85') until I did the math  (50" × 21-1/4")  too big for my layout!   So I went with 100' × 42-1/2' and scaled that down to O scale.  Its going to be similar to an outdoor rink in Missoula, MT that my son played at this spring which basically just has a roof over it.  Not sure whether I'll try to come up with players or do the zamboni effect.  We'll see!

And the only way it won't be a HABS rink is if my son convinces me to go with the Blackhawks!  

Thanks for looking

Nick

Nice job Nick. Many structures in 0-scale have to be scaled down in order to work on a layout. You did a good job with this.

Alan Graziano

Definitely Blackhawks, with the Logo in the ice

Looks great! Please post as you continue.

There is a former forum member that has a rink. He used a Rangers static-cling (I think) decal from eBay for center ice. It's not the exact one from NYC's Madison Square Garden, but looked great. He did a lot of work with paint and coatings on the rink, to make the decal blend into the rink's surface. Came out pretty good.

He had sitting players on two benches. He bought O scale figures that are in a sitting position .... workers, passengers, etc. Painting them up, and made hockey sticks out of different materials. From a modest distance, it looked very, very good.

Good luck with your rink, and have fun.

So here is my idea for the boards and glass for the rink.  Im trying .050 plexiglass and painting the bottom half for the boards.  When this dries I'll paint the yellow bottom line.  Not sure about the corners, though.  Would heating it up with a hair dryer help?  The plexiglass will bend ok, but Im not sure how well it'll stay bent.  And what is the best glue for plexiglass?

 Thanks again for the tips and encouragement!

Nick

Use styrene for the corners

I spent some time on this last night and Im toying with the idea of using plexiglass for the whole thing.  That way I can glue the boards to the "ice".  Also the boards and glass are one piece that way.  I made a form out of a 2x4 and used a heat gun to soften the plexiglass which worked pretty well.  Still a lot of bugs to work out, though.  I'll try to post more pics tonight.

Nick

Don't forget the advertising on the boards. Also I think you should ditch the Habs logo and find a Caps one instead. ROCK THE RED! 

Lol!  GO HABS GO!!!    

Here are a couple of (terrible) pics of my progress:

This is the hastily thrown together "mold" for my heated plexiglas to make the corners for the boards.  After it cools it stays bent I have it here:

Just taped to my sheet of "ice".  Still on the fence for using the wood or plexiglas ice. 

And to keep this thread train related:

Thanks for looking and have a great night everyone!  Im off to the real ice rink to watch my son practice.  What better place to be on a 95 degree day!

Nick

Nick-

Would you consider a laser scored ice rink? We have done this for track diagrams. Basically, the lines are all engraved on the back/bottom. You mask the entire surface and then knife along the score line to remove the tape for the first color. You paint the first color and mask it out. Then you knife each suceeeding color. When all the lines are painted, you would then paint white. Give me a call to chat it through.

Doug,

very clever approach

That sounds like a great idea, Doug!  I havent had time to work on this for the last couple days, but plan on picking it back up this weekend.  The boards and glass will be the death of me!  I've found a thinner plastic that is perfect for the glass, but the right plastic for the boards eludes me.  I may very well be in touch about the laser cut ice, though.  Thanks again!

Nick

Nick-

We would use acrylic plastic for the boards, most likely 1/16" thick. It can be laser scored or scribed at intervals to represent the individual panels and to locate where the red and blue lines would be painted and then masked (there would be a total of 3 colors). Then we would take 1/16" thick styrene or acrylic tube in the correct diameter to create the corners. A bit of a challenge since you have to mount the tube on a sliding table so that when you run it through the table saw up against the fence it stays secure and safe. What diameter are your corners? Once all of the pieces are cut, you could get real fancy  and use styrene strip to simulate the framing on the back of the boards. What is the overall length by width of the rink? 

The ice is 10-1/2" × 24" with 4-5/8" diameter curves.  I know thats a strange number but its just what I had,  no idea if its accurate.  

Nick

This is so fascinating to follow. Thanks for all the details!!

I've tabled the hockey rink for now, but am still plugging away at some detail items like the benches and I've got one player ready to go.  I ended up using photo paper for the boards on the small rink (one with the zamboni).  And no glass.  I forgot to take a picture of it, but I'll add one soon.  This little guy is my son #13.  I need to get some more seated figures.   Eventually I would like to finish the big rink and incorporate it into a Christmas village if not my layout.  This has been fun, yet frustrating project.

Nick

Nick,  Really nice.  An idea I thought of for the resurfaced ice behind your Zamboni is perhaps a clear packing tape and then mask it in some way and although it may be a frustrating undertaking, you could use an X-acto knife to cut curves and all for when the Zamboni is turning at the end of a pass.  Just a thought.  Also, sometimes bakeries might have plastic hockey players for decorating cakes and such.  they wouldn't be very well detailed at all but depending on what you do they might work out somethin'.  Happy Trainin'!  

OSD 

So the small rink has photo paper boards which is ok for now, but I came across this wonderful stuff called Kydex which I used for the boards on the big rink.  Its really perfect for this,  just heat it up and its easily moldable.  Using Banjoflyer's idea (thank you) I made the boards pretty quickly.  Now I just need to trim them up and attach them to the "ice".  But first I need to paint the lines and glue down the circles I cut out for the face off zones.  Last will be the glass.  Progress!

Nick

Looks great Nick. Now you need to add either the NY Rangers or the Long Island Ducks emblems!!!!!!!