Summer 2019 Newsletter
Summer 2019 Newsletter
Issue 171
This was one of our informal quarterly meetings where our members showed off their latest Meccano creations.
At around 2:00pm we had a short committee meeting, followed by the Model Tour in which members were invited to give a short talk about their models — in particular their entries for the Secretary’s Challenge!
Written by Santiago Plicio
Who would have thought when I decided to start the New Year trying out new models, that I would have ended up with not one or two fairground rides but a whole fleet of Meccano ships instead?
I was always proud of the two previous ships I had made some time ago, though they have remained moored in the back of my garage ever since, but I never thought I would go on all of a sudden to make three more.
The Storm Slayer was the first of these new additions, driven by the desire to create a hull more curved than I had ever achieved before, which with Meccano is never easy. I started by building two identical parts of the hull and joined them together, adding the main deck.
The second came quickly after, from experimenting with creating different angles for a more yacht like hull, and once again a full model was rapidly developed which I named the Barracuda.
The Barracuda
I took inspiration from a plastic model in my front room that had sat on a shelf for years. It took 3 to 4 days in its construction and resulted in a much sleeker model, but as small as it was it was just as pleasing.
I guess when I placed the two side-by-side, it felt like a middle piece was missing to complete the collection, and though that was the main reason to do it, a third ship model was getting started almost as quickly as I thought of it.
This was named the Red Admiral. The hull was different again from the other two. Being medium sized it sits well in the middle of the other two, sharing some similarities with the first one. The same deep red sail material was used for all three ships.
See more photos of this model.