2011 January

Report by Malcolm Hanson

There was a good gathering at Phillip’s in January with a fine set of models.

Mark Bridle’s Hitachi 1200 excavator was a case in point. It matched all the movements of the original and was driven by separate motors all carefully chosen for the job in hand. The crawler tracks, that Mark had put a lot of work into, worked perfectly as did the “hydraulics” which were actually undertaken by sets of Kevlar chords.

Neil Bedford enthralled us his WWII German army BMW R75 motorcycle outfit with mounted machine gun. As with the original both rear wheels were driven, the one on the sidecar via a differential.

David Northcott brought two fine mechanisms. The first was a 3 forward and reverse gearbox with the distinction of having all the gearing journalled between two 2.5” triangular plates. The spacing of the holes allowed 25 tooth and 19 tooth pinions to mesh with each other.

The second mechanism was an orrery which modelled the sun and the inner four planets.

Tony South had a splendid model of a Harley Davidson Low Rider. This demonstrated some very imaginative use of parts but Tony still sees the model as incomplete with the next task being to add a convincing gearbox.

David Worth’s suitcase was again full of small modern models. These included cars, trucks, helicopters and robots, some of which are now sold in tin boxes! These are the first such outfits for 100 years, since the “Royal” Meccano outfit of 1911.

I brought a set of three red arrow Hawk Trainers that Argos were selling off for £5 each! At some point I will put together a full team.

I also had along a set of five small outfits from 1934/35 when the parts were mostly medium red and green with bright blue pulleys and bush wheels.