Monday 18 March 2013

Small manual models - great fun!


After man-handling the Weston loom around I decided to build a bespoke table to stand it on. So, on one of the rare dry days we have had this year, I spread a tarpaulin on the lawn and set up the saw horses. A couple of hours later the loom had its own stand and now sits behind the door in the Meccano room awaiting our attention.

Sue has been digging around in our stock of old tatty Meccano and building Manual models. The first of which is No.4 set model, Racing Car. It is amazing how good old Meccano looks with a bit of a clean up. All the parts were washed in warm soapy water, then carefully dried and polished prior to assembly. The only exceptions were the tinplate wheels which were cleaned with WD40 to avoid the risk of trapping water between the hub and the tyre. It was an interesting challenge and made me wonder how many of today's kids would have the skills to build it.

Sue's car - looking good!
Not to be left out of the fun I decided to apply the same technique to a small No.3 set model Crane to try out some cord we will be selling on RalphsShop All good fun and if you want to read more we have been talking about the models on the Rust Bucket forum. 

Follow the links below to see more pictures and details



My little crane
We have piles of Meccano but I can get just as much pleasure from building these small models as I do when completing one of our big projects. Build some more of these small models or get on with the loom? Hmmm we'll see...

Ralph.

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