A Dark and Stormy Night Modeling Horror Story

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The Case of the Merlin Kit

 

A Dark and Stormy Night Modeling Horror Story

 

From the deepest, murkiest, most haunted black lagoons of modeling history comes this...I hesitate to call it "kit". It is as much as a kit as the Frankenstein Monster is an adorable young human being.

Old are its years, obscure its origins, wrapped in shadows the unspeakable method used to create it.

It wouldn't be out of place in a séance as an ectoplasmic apparition that would certainly make the hairs of your nape raise.

How far should a modeler go to prove that his heart is stout, his hand firm, his will unquenchable?

Oh, the humanity.

It has been said that Merlin models were given that name because you have to be a wizard to be able to build them. I disagree. You have to be a mad wizard to even want to build one.

But suffer one must, it seems, when friends kindly ask you to build their old kits. Sigh...

 

Contents. For what I can see online the engine was lost in transit:

 

"Vintage" decals:

 

Instructions. The correct interpretation is "Mwahhhhaha....MWAHAHAHA....MWAHAHAHAH!!!"

 

One and 4/5ths of a propeller:

 

And those seats don't look that comfortable, if you ask me:

 

The "clear" fuselage. Appropriately murky...

A strange composite material, with reinforcement black particles embedded in the plastic (Igor's ashes?):

 

 

 

And, just mentioning, there is nowadays the Planet Models Air Express resin kit that is, well, as Lady Galadriel is to an orc.

 

To be continued?

 

[Martian]

Hmm, a date with Frankenstein's monster seems appealing compared to a Merlin kit!

 

Martian 👾

[StephenCJ]

Did Merlin also make metal kits?  I have a metal kit one in my trunk of planes.

That thing is scary Moa.

 

Stephen

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, StephenCJ said:

Did Merlin also make metal kits?  I have a metal kit one in my trunk of planes.

That thing is scary Moa.

 

Stephen

Don't know, but if they did, I dread to think...they are heavy enough as they are in plastic, or whatever substance it's used to make them.

And you think that's scary? see what follows....

[StephenCJ]

You will scare that mess of a kit into shape and it will be a salubrious as all your other builds.

What do you know about the Ford Trimotor used by Byrds Antarctic Expedition? 

I bought an Airfix kit a few weeks ago and would like a model of Byrds Trimotor after I finish Smithy's Southern Cross.  Which will be finished after the scary Concorde.

 

Stephen

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

6 minutes ago, StephenCJ said:

You will scare that mess of a kit into shape and it will be a salubrious as all your other builds.

What do you know about the Ford Trimotor used by Byrds Antarctic Expedition? 

I bought an Airfix kit a few weeks ago and would like a model of Byrds Trimotor after I finish Smithy's Southern Cross.  Which will be finished after the scary Concorde.

 

Stephen

Will have to get back at you on this one later, directly. I have some material, but have to look for it.

[StephenCJ]

Thanks

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The known aerodynamically-disadvantageous fat wing tip:

 

Financially profitable for sandpaper makers, though:

 

I am convinced this kit was brought to Earth by the Devil Girl From Mars

 

 

 

You think this is flash? Há! You try to remove it:

 

They make them sturdy in Mars...

 

Masters by Boris Karloff, molds by Bela Lugosi:

 

Look, mom, detail!:

 

I think you were partially right, Stephen, here we have metal incrustations. No doubt another example of composites technology:

 

Will Good triumph over Ebil?

 

Edited August 6, 2018 by Moa

[StephenCJ]

I like how the wheels are "identical".

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

24 minutes ago, StephenCJ said:

I like how the wheels are "identical".

They are identical to themselves, according to Leibniz.

 

[cngaero]

Good old Merlin Models. I know that we all gripe about them now, but to be fair, they did produce some models that no other manufacturer would go anywhere near at that time.

They were from that quaint period of time when a good number of these so called cottage industries sprang up and produced a number of very basic, limited run kits, a number of which I still have stored away for that proverbial rainy day.

True, they were a challenge both mentally and physically, always offering a good work out with a set of files and a sheet or two of wet and dry. However, when completed, they did fill a gap in our collections until the shake and bake kits came along many years later.

I'm sure that you'll soon beat this one into submission and judging by your recent results, I can't wait to see this one on display.

[Fredag]

Looks like a super model compared to a Beechnut 'kit'!

[cngaero]

4 minutes ago, Fredag said:

Looks like a super model compared to a Beechnut 'kit'!

I'll take Beech nut kit and I'll raise you an Andy Pack vacform 😄

[IPMS19]

---AAAAARGH.........Bodje  Moï......!!!!!😱 😧  😨

[stevehnz]

Gonna be an interesting build this one, I've no doubt you'll ably master it Moa, I have confidence in you.  I had several Merlin kits but moved them on as better became available, I still have a Gloster Grebe though, that is important for a collection of NZPAF/RNZAF aircraft, to be honest, it doesn't look near as bad as this job.

Steve.

[Brandy]

Oooh, a Merlin!

 I've built 3 (for my sins)  and they are definitely a challenge - some far more so than others! My double kit of Fokker DI & DII was absolutely terrible, but with devotion, sandpaper, knives, saws, and more sandpaper, the end result was more than acceptable! Not sure quite how much of the actual kits remained by then though......

 

Ian

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Rotary tool and drum sander are used for hours to thin the walls of that cowl:

 

 

Now, how self-defeating is this: the whole purpose of the (ahem..) "clear" fuselage is to do away with the chore of gluing the windows, and just mask the areas to facilitate things.

But when it happens that the worse clarity is obtained exactly at the windows, well, Houston, we got a problem:

 

Scrounged a Wasp from the spares bin:

 

The kit has marked the exhaust exits that have to be drilled:

 

May be Merlin kits are magic after all: you work on them for hours and hours, but they look more or less the same:

 

The Air Express had one pilot seat and four passenger seats (two of them as one on the back), but my kit has two pilot and three passenger seats:

 

The prop is a lost cause. A replacement one will be sought on the spares bin:

 

The kit's control column. Not only crumbly, but also incorrect:

 

This is the strut material provided: puny, flimsy, and not suitable for the landing gear (perhaps intended for the wing multiple struts).

Must be replaced, preferably with brass Strutz for the wing:

 

 

 

Edited August 5, 2018 by Moa
to correct typo

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

11 hours ago, cngaero said:

they did produce some models that no other manufacturer would go anywhere near at that time.

Chris, I think that is one of their very few saving graces.

As I say often, all kit's are the work of love of someone. But so was the Frankenstein monster, to keep things in perspective.

There were many other "cottage" industries then, of noticeably higher quality. I know that releases vary in quality from the same manufacturer, so may be there were better ones cranked by Merlin. It seems to be the case for what other modelers are posting.

But: this is a dog, irrefutably and irredeemably so.

Still, luxury!: metal parts, decals, fantastic subject that was only properly kitted decades later (and in resin, still not mainstream).

I have (perhaps like you and many others here) many long decades of model building. So yes, nostalgia and other qualities make us be lenient, but in this case, it is absolutely not worth the effort, at all, whatsoever.

I am doing this for a good friend, that had the kit for long, and whom I could not convince of trashing it. I wish he had, but now built it will be, at the battle cry of

Forth, Kitlingas!!!!!!!!

 

[JosephLalor]

My main concern with that kind of kit is not that it would require a lot of filing, filling and sanding, but that the mould halves might be badly aligned, such that cleaning up would lead to mis-shapen wheels or lost wing/tailplane/fin edges.  What's the kit like in that respect?

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

5 minutes ago, JosephLalor said:

My main concern with that kind of kit is not that it would require a lot of filing, filling and sanding, but that the mould halves might be badly aligned, such that cleaning up would lead to mis-shapen wheels or lost wing/tailplane/fin edges.  What's the kit like in that respect?

Hi Joseph:

The only things that need alignment here are the cowl and fuselage halves. They align acceptably. All other parts are solid, horribly so.

If you have shape concerns, and you think filing, filling and sanding are secondary, you are there for a treat.

This kit, because of its intrinsic quality (lack of thereof, actually) lends itself to a somewhat simple kind of build, where concerns of accuracy or detail are summarily addressed.

To turn this into a correct, well detailed and accurate model, you would have to...buy another kit.

Still, a decent representation -I hope- can be obtained, but the time and effort invested are, to my criteria, a total waste. It takes three times the effort and time and you get half the results. I don't see the point of this futile exercise at all.

If this would be my kit, trash can it will be, or the Kits' Wall of Shame.

 

 

[dogsbody]

That's not plastic. It's carpet monster poo! Throw it away!!

 

 

Chris

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

10 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

That's not plastic. It's carpet monster poo! Throw it away!!

 

 

Chris 

Too late. it bit mi finger and won't let go.

[corsaircorp]

Hello Moa,

This is no longer courage, Heroic seem more adapted !! And Epic too !

But no doubts that you are going to master this scratchbuild kit too !!

Sincerely.

CC

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Metal polish cream is used in an effort to obtain some clarity from those "clear" parts:

 

Some is achieved:

 

If for some inexplicable and unfathomable reason you want to build this kit, notice that you can slide the whole interior from the front opening:

 

 

Edited August 3, 2018 by Moa
to correct typo

[Kevin Aris]

SORRY, but you have far more patience than me