For the last several years, Axial has worked with Ryan Gerrish and his team to help expose our wonderful world of scale trail driving to the masses in the upper north west at the Portland International Auto Show. Ryan has been working overtime to develop a brand new course for the 2013 show. We managed to get some behind the scenes spy photos of his work and wanted to share them with you.
This is a long process starting with a fresh canvas, or wood if you will
Ryan starts with plywood, foam blocks and foam sheets, these sheets get trimmed and shaped into the surface the vehicles are meant to drive on
Ryan also uses wood branches to give the eventual appearance of scale trees that have fallen to travel over
As he is building, he is confirming the Axial Jeep can negotiate the terrain
This years course will be a little different than courses in the past. This course will be more of a scale trail that has a start and stopping point. Courses in the past have reseambled a mountain that demo drivers can try an dconquer. This years course design will help to accomidate a lot more people as there is a set goal to achieve. The course will also feature information about the Jeep vehicle you are driving, and its capabilities
For instance, there will be a section for water fording, as seen here in its early stages of development
Ryan is extremely creative and the best we know when it comes to making a realistic looking environment for scale realism as illustrated here
After Ryan has the shapes sorted out, he begins the process of applying the driving surface. This process takes a lot of time and patience to complete
His artistic vision is awesome, we are really looking forward to see this scale environment when it is completed, we can wait to drive the trail!
If you live in the greater north west, be sure and visit the Portland International Auto Show and have a go on this awesome scale trail! The Auto show starts January 24th, and goes through the 27th.
Click here for more info on the Portland International Auto Show
To see some of the Portland Auto Show interactive displays from the past, be sure and check out the following links:
Click here for the 2012 event post
Click here for the step by step display build for 2012