Model Mania — Robin McKnight’s New Zealand creations

Model Mania with Bob Riley visits Robin McKnight’s scratch-built ACCO, Mack bottom dumper and detailed bulldozer models.

Model Mania with Bob Riley. Original ACT archive column; no individual photographer is identified in the retained pages.

In ACT’s Model Mania pages this issue we take a quick trip across the ditch and check out some extraordinary scale model creations of New Zealand’s Robin McKnight.

Hardworking ACCO

The cab, chassis and a lot of the timber jinker were scratch built using folded and soldered light gauge galvanised sheet metal. The truck boasts a Detroit V8 engine and the full rig sits on resin spider wheels and tyres that Robin cast himself. The combination is painted in PANPAC Forest Products’ colour scheme from the period and represents a model of an ACCO and trailer that might have been operated by that company hauling plantation logs to a New Zealand North Island mill.

R model Mack and bottom dumper

The R model Mack and bottom dumper typifies units operated by Winstone Aggregates in New Zealand, Robin wrote.

The Mack is based on the 1/25 scale AMT kit. It has a shortened chassis and boasts aluminium ribbed mudguards over the drive wheels, a stainless steel exhaust stack and a stainless sunvisor.

The trailer has been scratch built from a thin galvanised sheet on a lemonwood external ribbed frame. The bottom dump doors open and close while the trailer suspension and mudguards have also been scratch built. The five spoke rims and tyres on the trailer are Robin’s own resin castings.

Dozers on Show — Euclid’s Largest

Bulldozers are a rarity in Australian Custom Trucks, but these have to be the exception.

The twin Detroit 6-71 powered Euclid TC-12 featured below first appeared in the mid-1950s and was, at the time, the largest bulldozer on the market.

Robin McKnight remembers the machines from his childhood and used photos he took at the time and a lot of online research of the machines, to help build this 1/25 scale model.

He cast the individual track plates in fibreglass and fashioned much of the rest of the machine from thin galvanised sheeting. The movable blade and rippers were made from galvanised sheeting. The sprockets, idler and road wheels were made from offcuts of the thick and heavy white vinyl used in truck mud flaps. The engines are cast resin products from Auslowe.

The model was air-brushed in colours from the Resene touch-up range before it was wiped down in light machine oil to give it a realistic ‘working machine’ look.

Caterpillar D8

The Caterpillar D8 featured on the right is based on the classic 1/25 scale AMT kit but it features scratch built tracks, a scratch built blade, new hydraulic rams, a set of three scratch built rippers, a scratch built canopy and a set of front safety bars over the engine. A respray in Cat yellow, new decals and a series of stain washes gave the dozer its ‘working machine’ finish.

International TD 24

The International TD 24 bulldozer featured on the right is a 1/25 scale ground-up build. The tracks were modified units from a Bruder construction site toy and were fitted with stainless steel windscreen wiper stiffeners for the growlers. The bulk of the machine was built from thin gauge galvanised sheet that was soldered together. Stainless steel exhaust stacks were fitted while the decals were designed and home printed by Robin. The TD 24 is set up to tow an ‘onion scoop’ scraper which Robin says is a future project.

Rear Vision: where are they now?

Have you built similar models or have an update on Robin’s collection? Tell ACT what happened next. We will verify current updates before adding them to the archive.