Sunday, October 04, 2009

On tour; Christchurch

(The first in a series of posts 'on the road')

Today I flew from Nelson to Invercargill via Christchurch. While in Christchurch I managed to use the bus service (which I had not used in awhile and was actually quite disappointed) to get from the airport across town to the venue.

The set up of the hall was with the layouts in the middle and trade stands round the outside.



The selection of layouts was quite good, ranging from finescale NZR to lego and old tinplate.


I reacquainted myself with some of the modelers behind the One Track Minds layout.



The overall work on this layout is incredible.
Another layout from Timaru (my uncle is involved with it) had some interesting working scenes. One bit that did catch my eye was a road working scene involving some Faller working trucks and buses, that drove past an obstruction but were controlled by an electronic circuit which prevented crashes at this point, as well as working 'lollypop men'.
On the Nz120 front, sat down with a couple of fellow modelers (Earwicker and Greg) but didn't manage to catch up with Jolon (were you trying to sell Noel Creswell a Kato 2-8-2?)or Gummy Joe.
I also talked to Glen Anthony who has moved up to a larger scale, with quite impressive results.



I had a chance to investigate Cross creek models (labeled Midland line models TTn3.5) in the flesh, and in retrospect should have brought a few for review purposes. My inspection revealed (to my untrained eye) that they were about the same (possibly slightly better than) as my home casts. They were certainly not as good as the Trackgang models, but they do several tops that are not available anywhere else. Still not quite enough for me to part with some money.

I was told by several people that Pats wife had destroyed the molds etc. Fortunately Russell had sent me some cards, so I could just reply 'but you are wrong' and hand the card over.

Also had several discussions revolving around the use of US outline models repainted into NZR colours. I was told that there had been a brass Db model (made in Japan no less) on the bring and buy table. further questioning resulted in the admission 'well, it was actually a repainted H24-66 Trainmaster'. Now I'm sorry guys (I'm going to be a bit brutal here)but a repainted N scale model is not an Nz120 model. Several of the larger scale modelers at the table commented that my models had the right proportions where as the repainted models didn't have the right bulk.

So, there's my opinion on the subject.


Back to the Show itself, overall I was quite impressed by the whole thing. There was a good selection of models, plenty of stuff on sale, and a really good venue. It was just a pity that there were no Nz120 layouts on display.

6 comments:

ECMT said...

I wish I had been there as I reckon it's the best show in NZ. I'd love to have seen Glen Anthony's layout addition - his modelling always reeks of quality, and the OTM layout(s) is always a great layout to drool over !

It's going to take a little while to dispel the myth of Marauding Margaret the Mold Muncher, so thanks for distributing the handouts and letting people know what's available in NZ120.

Did you have a few beers before you went or was it the camera ???

Motorised Dandruff said...

It might have been the stress of taking 2 hours to get to the venue from the airport using the bus system. 3 different comapnies, no standard day trip ticket, no real clear information on which companiy ran what.

By the time I got there I really needed a beer!
The pictures were taken in a bit of a rush, and I have not looked at them hard before uploading them last night I'll do better in the next posting.

Motorised Dandruff said...

Holly crap those are bad. However the one track minds pictures I though looked even a bit more realistic. They looked like they were taken out of a car window.

sxytrain said...

Coincidently ECMT and myself, along with my webpage administrator, jollied along for the day at the Rotorua Hoby Show. First time appearance for Trackgang Products to the public (In uniform and new signage no less!). We fielded numerous enquires about the scale and where the kits were made and the mechandisim's used, and handed out catalogues and contact info. I managed to do a little bit of kit construction during the day and ECMT gathered some photo's around the show layouts which included your general variety of mainly HO/OO american, european, and british outline. Also the O gauge and Mr Agnew with his sales table of Bassett Lowe, and several n scale layouts. The only NZR was HO scale from Taupo.

Graham said...

went to the show on Sunday. didn't have a layout to help with this year. will have a small nz120 layout at the convention next year.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the comments about my layout ECMT. There is a video of it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3aOci_enBg

Glen Anthony