Making N Scale Tires and a Tire Dump

[Dave V]

[Lemosteam]

These things disappear like trees and figures!

I swear my bag of them has not actually grown any fuller after making hundreds more.

(Attachment Link)

Reminds me of when I made these individual cut-stones:

[Missaberoad]

@Dave V
Nice! Now if we can figure out how to make N scale Funzos we're really in business... 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Now that I have a stash of tires it was time to see how they'd work on the dump. I had no idea how many of them I'd need for my use so I just jumped in.

First I carved a base for the pile out of some black foam core.





I squirted some white glue and black paint on and brushed it around. I then sprinkled on my stash of tires.



Here it is after the paint and glue dried.





Not bad, but I now know I need to make about as many more tires as I have already made since I'll need more to blend the base in, scatter around and share with my homies.

But so far, I'm pretty happy with the results.

[mu26aeh]

Really need to create a tire fire scene  

[Maletrain]

Yeah, as tires for N scale Monster Trucks. 

I do like Dave's ideal of using (shrunken) heat shrink.  That might produce some good looking tires.

Don't those 3.5mm rings scale out to 22" diameter in N scale?  The tires that I have on my non-monster Tahoe 4x4 are 31" in diameter.  And the jig width scales to only 3.2" tire width, which is small for any tire and paltry for my 10" section width 4x4 tires. But, I see that Ed really has a lot of tire widths in his bag.

So, maybe these could be truck tires in Z scale, but they are definitely in the compact car size for N scale.

Now, how small can your Alps printer make a decal that says "Pirelli"? 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Really need to create a tire fire scene  

I DO keep thinking about adding a smoke generator... hmmm.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Don't those 3.5mm rings scale out to 22" diameter in N scale?  The tires that I have on my non-monster Tahoe 4x4 are 31" in diameter.  And the jig width scales to only 3.2" tire width, which is small for any tire and paltry for my 10" section width 4x4 tires. But, I see that Ed really has a lot of tire widths in his bag.

So, maybe these could be truck tires in Z scale, but they are definitely in the compact car size for N scale.

Now, how small can your Alps printer make a decal that says "Pirelli"? 

I made my peace with the size not being perfect long ago.

[Maletrain]

I made my peace with the size not being perfect long ago.

I was actually arguing that they are more perfect than Peteski was thinking.  They look pretty convincing. Much more so than a lot of O-rings, that come across more like innertubes. 

I am thinking of using your technique to make a tire swing to hang in a tree.  So, I will probably spend more effort making it look close to perfect, since it will be a highlight and I only need to make one.  It needs to be good enough that people don't spend too much time looking at my tree. 

Of course, in my modeling era, I won't need raised white letters, so Peteski is off the hook for tiny decals. 

[peteski]

I was actually arguing that they are more perfect than Peteski was thinking.  They look pretty convincing. Much more so than a lot of O-rings, that come across more like innertubes. 

I am thinking of using your technique to make a tire swing to hang in a tree.  So, I will probably spend more effort making it look close to perfect, since it will be a highlight and I only need to make one.  It needs to be good enough that people don't spend too much time looking at my tree. 

Of course, in my modeling era, I won't need raised white letters, so Peteski is off the hook for tiny decals. 

Ed's tires look ok, because there is  nothing around to  compare their size to.  Kind of like 1:150 size vehicles can be used on a 1:160 layout, if they are nto placed next to 1:160 vehicles.

If you just need one tire for swing, you can make it perfect size.  Just chick dome plastic tubing of a size close  enough, then using a file turn it to the exact size you want, then cut it off the end of the tube.  Come to think of it, I seem to decal that some company (Detail Master maybe) has some tires in one of their white metal detail sets).  That would probably work too. Also, doesn't Woodland Scenics make a figure set where they include a tire swing?

[JMaurer1]

While it may have taken longer, I would have just built an N scale tire dealer and as the N scale people came in for new tires, just keep the old ones out back of the shop...

[basementcalling]

So Ed's tire making abilities outpace his tree making ability?

 

[randgust]

I remember my first trip out to Nevada in 1994, inspecting the 1860's abandoned grade of the Virginia & Truckee to Virginia City.

Simply an ENORMOUS tire dump, right beside the ROW, on what was supposed to become a tourist railroad.   It had to go.   

Railroad got rebuilt, but I still have pictures of that mammoth tire dump just north of Mound House.    Nevada is a great preservation environment, I'll never forget walking around near Silver City by the ROW, saw an abandoned mine head, walked over to it, and there was a leather boot.   Had been there for probably 50+ years, still intact, brittle, but intact.   So a tire would last longer than a cockroach in a nuclear attack.

So nothing says 80's-90's like a good old fashioned tire dump.     There's still one out in Wagon Mound, NM that's like 3/4 of a mile long or something.

Great modeling, by the way, saw the weekend update and wondered how in the devil you made all those tires.    I'm waiting for DKS to figure out how to do a cloud of mosquitoes.    Just a soft mosquito whine out of a speaker would be fun.......

Hey, just trying to help....

[freedj]

If you have a air compressor handy you might be able to set it up to constantly blow the cut tires into a collection bin so you don’t have to stop chopping.