B&M Mega - "Cloudburst"

[coasterdude1216]

Greetings all!

I thought I would share a peek at my biggest project to date. I'm working on a massive B&M Mega coaster. I've never attempted a really realistic model such as this, where the layout and shaping will be mostly accurate to B&M's style. I've also never attempted a coaster of this size before. Comments are appreciated.

I don't want to give away too much, yet! I was going to have couple of photos but I got fed up with the uploading process in the gallery because it wouldn't upload anymore files. I also can't figure out how to have the image appear in this post; it's irritating, because I'm not new to forums. At any rate, this pic should suffice!

Cloudburst - SSCoasters Model Gallery

-Keegan

[Maxwell58]

THAT IS HUGE!!!!!!! WOAH!!!!! The shaping looks great. Will you have enough pieces to finish that coaster?

To get the pic to show you just have to copy the image url and paste it in place of the 3 stars shown
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[Helmut]

Woah... That's huge!

The drop looks great and I guess the crest is too. My only concern is that the first half of the lift is not perfectly straight.

[Coastergeek987]

It... Goes... In.... The..... Ceiling! Woah, I had to show my parents this, how many SS do you have?!?!?

[2015ASM]

That is just a massive coaster! How may I ask did you construct the crest? Did you build it on the ground and connect it up there or did you remove additional ceiling tiles to get up there?

-AsM

[SCM]

That looks like 15 feet tall!
You know you're a serious knex coaster maker when you make a coaster going through the roof. I'm confused with one thing. Why is the ride in the background blurry? It looks like there is smoke there! Did you make a ride before, and it is a green screen? (Sorry for questions) I think I know the name of that ride in the background.
My only concern with it is that the lift seems to be bending slightly.

[Treeko890coastr]

Guys, i think we found a new Gump............
This thing is AWESOME!

[Maxwell58]

Guys, i think we found a new Gump........

[Coastergeek987]

Oh, my god, I laughed so hard when I saw that ^

[Yognog]

^Me too lol

Nice coaster tho!

[Treeko890coastr]

[coasterdude1216]

Thanks everyone!

Here's how I did the crest. It's just a simple box support structure wedged between the dividers in the ceiling tiles:


The height is about 8 feet, my basement has a 7 foot ceiling and it goes pretty far into it.

The reason the background is blurry and white is photoshop. I have a large megaplex consisting of four interweaving roller coasters and four flat rides, which I'm not ready to reveal until I finish this coaster.

I'm hoping I have enough pieces. I've been collecting SS sets over the years, and I just bought five complete sets plus a bonus 3 electric motors off of Craigslist. The pieces I run out of are the grey rods, because the entire coaster is going to be tube supports.

Speaking of tube supports, here's a preview of the overbank after the drop:

It's the most annoying piece of work I've ever worked with. I've had to rip the track off of that overbank two or three times to redo it completely, and now I've gotta do it again because I just weighted the cars with pennies, changing the dynamics of the ride. It's proving to be very difficult to shape and support strongly.

[Treeko890coastr]

Awesome job so far I like how you used the ceiling right there

[SCM]

I lol'd.
Is this going to be a huge hyper coaster?

[finrollercoaste09]

I lol'd.
Is this going to be a huge hyper coaster?

No, it's gonna be the smallest k'nex coaster in the world.

[coasterdude1216]

Haha yes it's going to be a huge hypercoaster. I'm modeling it after B&M's hypercoaster/megacoaster style.

The rest of the layout is going to feature airtime hills, and, hopefully, a fabulous figure-eight turnaround like on Shambhala if I can pull it off:
Shambhala (PortAventura Park)

It's got some elements from B&M's new giga "Leviathan" as well, because I borrowed the idea of the large drop spine that dives straight into the foundation:
http://www.thetechloft.com/wp-conten...4/CIMG1590.jpg
I'm really proud of that spine, it turned out exactly as I pictured it in my head. It's really beautiful, actually. As I stare at that picture though, I spiral into concern with how differently my drop is shaped than this, but I'll be hard-pressed to redo that drop...

[william0510]

raise your hand if you think this is going to be an EPIC coaster

[Jumpge]

I am absolutely in love with this coaster, and it looks like you really know how to build and shape well. I think if you include some awesome elements like the figure-8 turn, this coaster is going to be incredible to see.

I am only a bit fearful of that first over bank when using tube supports. Just make sure that turn is rock solid or else you're going to lose a lot of speed right away.

[coasterdude1216]

^Yeah, the turn has been a butthead to work with. Luckily, I just finished this today:


I really enjoy how that box spine turned out. I'm gonna utilize that a lot from now on; I'm probably gonna do the entire figure-8 turnaround with a spine of some sort.

[msoccerkidm]

have you tested it yet? Does it shake a lot? I must say I am excited to see the 8 shaped turnaround.

[coasterdude1216]

I have tested it, it shakes considerably as of right now, I'm going to add some lateral bracing that is parallel with the direction of the track. The horizontal bracing stops it from swaying left and right but it has some serious movement front-to-back along the track's direction. It'll be hard to do, the train is super heavy. It's 8 SS cars all weighed with 21 pennies each like in the tutorial I found. Hoping that weight saves me a ton of speed for later in the course, it's going to have to be a longggg track.

[Coastergeek987]

How many SS have you got? The support after the crest on the overbank may need to be extended by a granite. This is absolutely fantastic!! And what motor do you plan on using?

[msoccerkidm]

I would suggest putting tubing through the middle of the X-ties and also adding track strengtheners to the flexies.
http://www.sscoasters.net/forum/f41/...upports-12196/

there is 2 really good strengtheners in that tutorial.

[coasterdude1216]

Total SS sets, probably around 9 complete sets. But, I only have 5 to work with on this monster because the other four are being put to use on my megaplex.

Matt, if you're talking about the strengtheners that snap on to the flexis and make it have like 3 or 4 flexis, I might just do that. They look really useful.

[Maxwell58]

Only 5 Screaming Serpents? You must have other sets.