Easter weekend in the trucking world means models and this year the little roads in our world all lead to the Hawke‘s Bay!

Photo: An extreme build by Marty Crooks, earning it Best of Show, Best Kenworth, Best Modified and 1st place in the loggers section, a near-perfect replica of ‘Easyrider‘, Bayline Trucking‘s W900B from the 80s, owned and operated by Cliff Guy A.K.A ‘Snowman‘.

The Tamatea Intermediate School hall in Napier was the location for this year‘s New Zealand Model Truck Association National Competition and public display. For more than 40 years now the association has made Easter weekend the date for their annual event and modellers from throughout New Zealand make the pilgrimage with their latest creations fresh out of their workshops. It is a great opportunity for members young and old alike to share their ideas and also meet with the public to pass on their passion and skillsets and inspire the next generation of ‘Mini Big Riggers‘.

This year saw some outstanding new creations that had been extensively modified from the original factory produced over-the-counter kitsets into near completely scratch-built combinations based on classic New Zealand rigs, both from days gone by as well as the present. All said and done it was another successful event by the New Zealand Model Truck Association. For the members, it is now back to the work bench to start on next year‘s show pieces.

Photo: A matching fleet pair of Kenworth K model tippers looking the part straight out of the late 70s. built by Tim O‘Halloran.

Mini Big Rigs
This month‘s coverage of the New Zealand Model Truck Association‘s Easter nationals kicks off a regular feature on the model truck club scene. We‘ll keep you up to date on the club and what it‘s up to and other things of interest in the model scene. For the young especially, models are a great way to connect to the industry.

RESULTS New Zealand Model Truck Association National competition 2019