Auckland Meccano Guild

The meeting was held at David walls house on a nice sunny afternoon, the afternoon of the election actually and we had a record attendance. We had 21 members in attendance and a number of wives, it is fair to say thay David will need to enlarge his house if we continue to get such good attendances.

Les Megget provided us with a beautiful model touring car which he had built from scratch. It was modeled on the 35C Raceabout a very basic low slung WW1 racer. Also pictured is a complicated gearbox mecanism that was built by Les. You will have to ask him how it operates.

Gary Higgins brought along two models made from the new Infrared sets however they needed to be modified by the addition of a gearbox ( not provided in the sets ) to really achieve full mobility. The iR units themselves are small and compact and the controllers can handle 4 motors a very useful addition to the meccano stable.

David wall, who kindly provided the venue provided two excellent models on display.
A clyde river steamer and a rotating pendulum clock.

Bob Pentney had constructed a nice model of a harmonograph which drew unusual designs on paper, similar to a meccanograh but using a swinging pendulum to move the table, the stylus positioned above the swinging table captured the movement in graphic form. Fascinating to watch.
Bob also brought a selection of 4 of the new micro models series which should go on sale shortly for about $10.00 NZ.

Rick Vine brought along his usual varied array of models including a small but well made model of the Dalek from the Dr. Who series It looked dangerous enough to steer well clear of. A small 3 wheeler morgan car made from plans in a 1969 model mag, a tank engine from a 1938 outfit a elephant and howdah from an online modelplan, it walked with a most unusual gait and Rick also had a series of 4 mini models which will be shortly available in NZ.
Rick had also built a helicopter using the new IR sets as he said he tried to avoid those models using the screwed rods as drivers because the motors were geared too fast for the models.

John Denton brought along a very well made model of a Kientz 19th century style oscellating engine from Constructor Quaterly Dec 1992 and William Irwin brought a small south facing chariot model.

George Ovenden brought a caterpillar tractor model towing a trailer. The model used the plastic track packs introduced in the 1970s and was powered by a small electric motor.

William Irwin brought along a large range of plastic meccano sets from the 1970's.
I had no idea they put out such a large range of pieces and had never seen the large plastic worm and bevel gears previously.
Williams selection included a set C 1965 - 70 a set 300 and trackpack from 1971-76 and a 1977-78 set 2.

Some of the models were quite complex and included a meccanograph as the modelplan above shows.

It was interesting to note that the original name on the plastic track pack, which was described as caterpillar, was dropped for copyright reasons after caterpillar inc complained.

Gerald Hart had constructed a narrow guage locomotive in red green.

Neil Carey is allowing himself the luxury of building yet another locomotive. He has begun building the base frame for an NZR Ww class locomotive to the specifications shown above. Im sure it will be a real beauty, like Neils other locomotives, when completed.

Mike Stuart, a long standing guild member has recently returned from HongKong where he has been living. We welcome him back to the guild. David was quick of the mark in offering to buy his unused and obviously now rusty meccano for a minimal sum. Davids generous offer was politely refused.

Henry Porter had brought along an interesting model of a fighter plane, a wyvern which sported contra rotating prop blades. Mike Dennis informs me that the Wyvern prototype was built in 1946 with a Rolls Royce Eagle (1944) The prototye and Mk 1 had two 4 blade Contra-props. -
It entered service with the Royal Navy in 1953, fitted with an Armstrong
Siddely Python turbo prop engine with two 3 blade props and 127 were built.
Henry had used 3 of the modern gearboxes in line to get enough torque to power the blades. The wings of the aircraft folded up for carrier stowage and Henry had used an interesting selection of old and new parts in constructing his model. He is pictured above standing next to the model.

Anthony Caldwell had constructed a model of an AWACs aircraft using a no6 evolution set.

Andrew and Sam Cathie had constructed a model which walked. the concept was modelled on constructions on a website by Theo Jensen who makes sculptures based on kinetic principles.

Graham Wrightson had built a crane from the no 20 set and Kegan Wrightson had made up a number of models including an airport fire truck, a forklift constructed using the 1980s infrared set, an orange remote controlled car, a dynamic set off roader and a 4x4 truck... Keep this up and Rick will have serious competition for the most models brought along.

Merve Mexted sent his apologies, he has been unwell and we wish him a speedy recovery.

Peter Hancock gave his report on guild activities including a run down of the ModelX show for next year and our possible placement.
Members were also encouraged to put in applications for attending the convention in Christchurch next year.
It is good to see that the Auckland guild will be well represented.

The meeting closed as usual after an excellent afternoon tea presented by the ladies.

We look forward to seeing you all at the next meeting and remember if you have any interesting stories or models contact Les Megget as we are still after copy for the national magazine.