Heritage Festival & Historic Commercial Vehicle Club Display

With the wife away, nothing of importance to do and an entire Sunday to myself what better excuse did I need to go for a drive up to Healesville - about 90 minutes away - and checkout the annual Heritage Festival, which this year celebrated it's 150th Anniversary.

The festival was held in the grounds of the Healesville railway station, which is also home of the Yarra Valley Tourist Railway, and on display - both active and static - were a large number of steam driven vehicles as well as trains, vintage cars, trucks and buses. Unfortunately the event wasn't as big I thought it was going to be and after an hour or so of wandering around and taking some photos, I'd pretty much seen it all so decided to head on home.

W250 Diesel Hydraulic Locomotive

Walker RM22 Railmotor

McKenzie's Weber Body Bus

The Herald Newspaper Dodge Delivery Truck

Chevrolet Pickup

1925 Super Sentinel Steam Wagon

1915 Marshall Traction Engine

Cowley Steam Roller

1928 Cowley Steam Roller

Burrell's Devonshire Traction Engine

Burrell's Devonshire Traction Engine

Instead of taking my usual route, which bypasses Yarra Glen, I decided to go through the town and stop at the bakery for lunch. As I entered Yarra Glen I noticed a large banner advertising a Truck Muster at the local racecourse, but didn't give it much thought as it seemed be a bit of a country yokel thing. However, whilst sitting outside having lunch a number of military vehicles rolled though the town heading for the racecourse, and it was then I decided it might be worth checking out the Truck Muster after all.

To say that I had no idea of what to expect is an understatement as packed into the grounds of the racecourse were some 300+ vehicles, consisting of all manner of trucks, vans, buses, military vehicles and much much more. I have never experienced an event of this kind before and was amazed at the number and variety of vehicles on show, not to mention the amount of time, money and effort that people have lavished on these vehicles. The $10.00 entry fee was more than worth it and it was time well spent. I'll definitely be going to this event again, or any like it, as it was a real eye opener and the best day ever!

Mack Model B & 2 Diamond T's

1935 Bedford Tow Truck

1948 Bedford Model OL

1942 Dodge & 1946 Ford Buses

Dodge Command Car

Dodge Command Car

Dodge Weapons Carrier

1937 Diamond T

1947 Fordson

1950 International Harvester L150

Diamond T Esso Tanker

White Truck

Hasegawa 1/72 Mitsubishi Ki-15-1 'Kamikaze & Asakaze'

It's been a while since I completed a Japanese aircraft subject and this pair of hangar queens had been sitting on my shelf of doom for over 3 years. However, a recent period of long term convalescence enabled me to reacquaint myself with them and as a consequence I was able to finally finish them off.

Despite their age the kits were a straight forward build and presented no major problems whatsoever, with the only real challenge being the painting. As I wanted to display these aircraft in a flying pose I also needed to find some suitable pilot figures for the cockpits and managed to source some white metal figures from Eureka Miniatures (http://eurekamin.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=1361). Although these represent a WWII American pilot, as only their heads would be visible through the canopies it really didn't matter so much and they served their purpose perfectly.

Another issue I had to deal with was how to replicate the spinning propellers and although I looked at a number of commercially available options, I really didn't like them. In the end I opted to make my own, using a compass fitted with steel points to cut circles from a sheet of OHP (overhead projector) film, which worked out surprisingly well.

After priming the models I then sprayed them with Gloss Aluminium (TS-17) using a Tamiya rattle can and the Bright Blue (65) using Gunze Mr Hobby color. The decals were then applied and the models sprayed with two coats of Future to give them an even high gloss finish. I choose not to weather the models in any way as I wanted to them to look like a pair display models as you often find in antique stores and am happy with the final result.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles - Part 1

On Sunday 26th October I drove down to Point Cook to checkout Australia's newest Warbird, the F4U-5N Corsair VH-NII, which was scheduled to put on a handling display in the afternoon as part of the RAAF Museum's weekend interactive program. The Corsair, owned by Graham Hosking's, was piloted by Peter Clements who flew it down from Darwin over two days prior to the weekend, transiting via Alice Springs and Cowra before arriving at Point Cook.

Peter Clements put the aircraft through its paces demonstrating its amazing speed and handling and displayed it to great affect. It was a sight and sound that had to be witnessed to be fully appreciated. The Corsair is now based at Tyabb and should become a regular sight on the Australian Warbird display circuit.

Following on from the weekend at Point Cook my wife and I then traveled up to Maldon mid-week to experience the delights of the Victorian Goldfields Railway. The steam train ride takes 45 minutes from Maldon to Castlemaine - one way - and travels through some beautiful countryside. Upon return to Maldon we then took the short drive to Porcupine Flat, which is located on the Bendigo-Maldon Road, to checkout the old gold mining dredge and drag-line crane, which are located both in and alongside the old dam and date from the early 1950's. Despite there being warning signs advising people not to climb on the crane, these did not deter me in the least from exploring this amazing behemoth.

 

 

  

At the wife's insistence a return journey to Castlemaine was then required the following weekend, as she needed to visit the local patchwork store in order to purchase yet more fabric for some of her many ongoing projects. Whilst she was happy doing this I went off exploring and came across a yard at the rear of a garage, which seemed to contain a lot of old construction and transport machinery, hidden amongst a large number of trees.

Little did I realise what I'd actually stumbled across at the time and it was like entering an Aladin's Cave, with every step revealing yet another old vehicle in a state of decay but not beyond the realms of recovery. Most of the commercial vehicles carried the name of 'S.Caddy of Castlemaine' on their sides and this was obviously their previous owner. This was an amazing find and just goes to show what is still out there when you're prepared to look just that little bit further.