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The Otago Model Engineers Society is a group of enthusiasts that has it's facilities about 10 minutes drive from home. As some of you may well know I have a few Tether cars and there is a tether track at the club. So I joined so that l could run my cars and maybe make a few friends along the way.

As it happens we had an open week where all of the old guys bring in the stuff that they have made and run or display them. Here are some pictures of some of the things these guys have built from scratch and by hand.

An interesting thing is that these guys over the years have build projects where lots of members will build the same kind of thing. Now in 1983 they built 18 rc buggies using their own design. They cast lots of parts out of alloy and made the bodies out of fibreglass. Another project was the jet boats in the pictures.

Most of these guys are in their 70's and even their 80's and the combined skills of these old guys is very impressive. But unfortunately when they pass away their skills and knowledge will go with them.

Enjoy the picture guys..

Here are some pictures of the home made rc car and jet boat

I really respect the abilities of the old guys. They learned during a time when quality meant something and nothing was computer assisted. I knew a guy in his late 80's that was working on building a metal lathe. He'd been an engineer all his life. Now, I'm not knocking the under 50 crowd or their abilities, but today's engineer is vastly different from yesteryear.

I feel the same way about vintage muscle cars. I'd rather have a mid 60's car that did it's thing with shear grunt than most of the new stuff that's so laden with computers and excess garbage. Sure, today's cars are fast and cool too, but there's a huge difference between displacement and technology.