themeparkman25

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^Yes please on the SeaWorld pictures! I love me some Manta!

Seriously dude, your pictures are the best on the site. Every time I see a TR from you or a post from you in a picture thread, I get excited. These pictures are fantastic. Cannot wait for the next set!

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That second to last picture is fantastic! I am real jealous of all of you that good to go, it looks like an amazing time!

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Mightbeawannabe-The dimes are used to space the rails from the spine. On real B&M track, the rails are raised slightly based on the height of the ties, therefore I am mimicing that space. I just get lazy and put dimes in to do the work for me, since the glue takes roughly 15 minutes to initially dry. And I have absolutely no idea why my dates were messed up on everything. In fact, see my signature below, just realized today that that is messed up too! Office and Bob-Since you guys commented on the size of the track, I will give you a little story. The initial plans for my 4th coaster were supposed to be something fairly large in size using much bigger supplies for the spine. However, a problem arises as soon as the track size gets any bigger than this. Of the two companies, evergreen scale was the only one I was willing to work with since the other had horrible customer service. With that in mind, above 1/4" the square spine switches over from one solid piece of plastic into a hollow square. The problem with using bigger track arises when the melting and bending process occurs. Take, for example, a 1/2" hollow tube that I will be bending to the left. The left side of the square will then be compressed into a smaller space and the right side will be stretched. This compressing and stretching of the spine would ultimately mean that sections would buckle, fold and crease, hence creating an unsmooth track. I hope that description makes sense! I would have loved to have made the model bigger, but my supplier dictated the size of this one. And yes, Bob, I will post pictures with a ruler next update. Daniel-Thanks for the kind words! Stick with me through the project and I promise the end product will be awesome! Tiger-Thank you! I pride myself on the accuracy of my models. With this model, I also pride myself on the smoothness of the track. It is certainly a time consuming process but I believe it will definitely be worth it in the end. Stay tuned! Derek-Thank you! Keep up with this thread and I can promise the updates will only be getting better. Sam-Shouldn't you be running Ghostblasters?! haha just kidding! You'll have to see Manta one of these days. Brandon-Thank you for the kind words. What other models have you seen? As a quick update, I purchased a new heat gun today since I have the following two days off. This means that I should get some work done on the twist and turnaround! Look for an update soon!

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I am so congested I feel like I might suffocate and die. Allergies suck.

Technical-Overall, I am torn down the middle with this coaster. First, I want to say you did a great job with supporting the first half of the coaster. Your supports on the lift hill, drop and sea serpant are spot on, so great job in that aspect. However, you seemed to lose interest in supporting the second half of the ride. Am I wrong? In terms of the layout, I thought this was a very great choice of elements in a proper order. You could use a little work on the track though, namely, the first drop and the second corkscrew. Take time with your coaster and really get a feel of how it moves and looks and then in the end you will have a better product. Adrenaline-Like I said before, you have a very nice element selection and in a great order. I thought this was the coaster's strong suit. Originality-You brought back the Sea Serpant! High Five! If you are going for the typical B&M floorless, than this is it. If you are going for original, than maybe think of what they have done (Loop, Immelman/Dive loop, ZGR, Cobra roll, interlocking corkscrews) and don't do it. However, you say you are going for something typical, so good job! Keep up the good work. Just spend a little time smoothening some transitions and you will be good to go.

Fixed, Daniel.

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Update June 6th, 2010 As you will as soon see, the pretzel loop and the start of the inline twist have been started! Since the last update, I have completed the second half of the pretzel and the section turning into the twist. I think I can honestly say that this project is turning out 150% better than I could have imagined. The pieces look phenomenal in real life, the bankings are spot on and the rails couldn't be smoother. I wish you guys could actually see, but I literally cannot believe myself at how well this entire thing is turning out. So, in the next week or so, expect an update of the inline twist followed by the big turn going back towards the pretzel. I would love to be able to work on the project today since I have the day off from work, but something unfortunate did come up...my heat gun blew up/decided to die. Towards the end of that last piece hung, the gun turned off and started smoking. Oops. So, I will have to go grab another gun tomorrow before any more progress can be made on the ride. No big! I hope you guys enjoy this update and hope you can understand how well it is all turning out. No promises, but maybe when I complete the corkscrew through the pretzel I will make a video of the entire project to date. Might be more fun and just may allow that level of detail to be better captured. Without further adue, THE PRETZEL LOOP! Overview of Manta to date The pretzel loop! You will notice there are dimes at the top of the loop as well as the bottom. These dimes are holding the rails in place to allow for them to dry. This picture makes me happy! Hopefully you can tell in this picture how well everything is turning out. And of course, the obligatory Manta sign shot.

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