Now and again, a special occasion requires a special gift, something that has a bit of meaning to the person receiving it, something you cannot go to the store and grab off the shelf.

A few weeks ago our good mate Pin Te Huia’s wife Melissa (a.k.a ‘Chick’) was on the hunt for a birthday present worthy of the milestone Pin was about to celebrate. Knowing his history within Thames Freightlines through his father Wally, as well as his own employment later with TFL, the decision was automatic – we needed to build Pin a model that would pay homage to those great memories.

Our first move was a trip out to see our good mates at the Model Barn at Orongo Road just south of Thames.

Here, we purchased the basis of our build, a 1:64th scale Mack R-model by DCP First Gear, and a matching scale Highway Replicas five-axle flat-deck road-train trailer. These two pieces would speed up the build process by significantly reducing the amount of scratch-building required.

Those of you following Mini Big Rigs will notice I have used the same build techniques used on the nine-axle HPMV Scania project in the March and April 2021 issues of New Zealand Trucking.

This was a rewarding assignment. Not only was it a gift for a friend, but it is also always nice to see old fleet colours come to life again on a model, bringing back many fond memories. Happy birthday, Pin. We hope you have many happy hours looking at the mighty Mack.