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Merlin Models Lockheed Air Express, a Modeling Horror Story Part 2


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I Know exactly what these Merlin kits are: an attempt of Kaos to disrupt the modeling world, to sow utter confusion among unsuspected modelers, to drive Control mad trying to build unbuildable, amorphous lumps of plastic in a vain, futile effort to obtain a model!

This "kit" should be a prominent character in one of Poe's or Nathaniel Hawthorne's scary stories, or be in one of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu myths...

Oh, the horror...

 

If you have the strength of heart, and can bear it, you may consult the step-by-step Modeling Noire genre story here:

 

Yes, after all that time and inordinate amount of painstaking effort, a not totally indecent model was produced. Was it worth it?

Get yourself a Planet Lockheed Air Express (I did after this!) and trash this miserable lump of Merlin plastic if it happened to have sneakily crawled into your stash. Or donate it to a Museum of Horrors, to be displayed aside (or better in) the torture chamber.

Or wait -if you don't like resin kits or their prices are not for your modeling budget- until a manufacturer produces these Golden Age beauties in styrene form.

 

One very good thing came of it, though: I commissioned the decal sheet from Arctic Decals (the kit decal sheet was as miserable -and wrong- as the plastic), and it is superb, of exquisite quality.

So I now have spare decals for my other Air Express, yippee!

 

I represented the plane as flown by Frank Hawks in the 1929 National Air Tour, as a pathfinder plane for the entrants.

Once again I reiterate that this plane went through a large number of modifications in details and marks (some listed on the WIP post), so be careful, if you attempt to model it, with your research, and base it not on drawings, but on photos.

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Edited by Moa
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Just read the WIP - You deserve a medal for coming up with this out of that - er - kit! Probably would have been better off scratchbuilding the whole thing.

 

It is a lovely looking aeroplane and your model looks nice but the clunky tail surfaces spoil the effect somewhat.

 

Hopefully the Planet models version is a little more subtle?

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

 

 

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Anyway, those times when you go through horrible ordeals usually provide good material for interesting write-ups! QED in the WIP… 

 

She looks great! And that bold red livery tends to lessen the importance of razor sharp trailing edges, and so forth.

 

Top marks for stamina and inventiveness to wrestle the monster into submission!

 

However, if this were a Stephen King story, in the middle of the night you would hear… noises of struts freeing themselves from the bonds of CA. In the bleak light of dawn, you'd see inexplicable fingerprint smudges on the once immaculate paint finish, a minute wrinkle or two in the Texaco logo on the fin, a slight fogging on the inside of a window…

 

Not being able to stand the sight of these inexplicable imperfections (how could you not have seen them?), you spend hours repairing and touching up. There!

 

The next morning, though…

 

I'll leave it here.

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

 

 

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3 hours ago, Spitfire31 said:

However, if this were a Stephen King story, in the middle of the night you would hear… noises of struts freeing themselves from the bonds of CA. In the bleak light of dawn, you'd see inexplicable fingerprint smudges on the once immaculate paint finish, a minute wrinkle or two in the Texaco logo on the fin, a slight fogging on the inside of a window…

 

Not being able to stand the sight of these inexplicable imperfections (how could you not have seen them?), you spend hours repairing and touching up. There!

 

The next morning, though…

 

A whole new field: modeling psychological thrillers.

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  • 1 year later...

Beautifully built and finished!

 

I first saw "...a Modeling Horror Story..." in the title and knew it had to be one of your builds! I mean, who else routinely tackles such, uh, gems.

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Seems I( missed this one first time around, glad to have found it now though. Another beauty with all the Moa characteristics - original subject, beautifully built, and superb photography. Always a pleasure to see!

 

Cheers

 

John

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Moa,

 

this plane is absolutely stunning.

I did not read your WIP, as I get nightmares with horror stories. I am more of a Walt Disney type...

I am a sucker for red flying machines, so it ticks all the boxes. And it is a well known fact that red cars and red planes go faster! I know, my childhood beliefs are seriously hard to shift!

Merlin Models have always had a malevolent reputation and are mostly built by pasty-looking modelers at full moon in the center of pentagrams. These kits have even been known to whisper: "Kiss me, and I shall be yours for ever..."

Whatever, Moa I must congratulate you on this build, but I know you have an ample supply of garlic and crucifixes under your modelling bench.

 

Cheers

 

JR

 

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21 minutes ago, jean said:

Hi Moa,

 

this plane is absolutely stunning.

I did not read your WIP, as I get nightmares with horror stories. I am more of a Walt Disney type...

I am a sucker for red flying machines, so it ticks all the boxes. And it is a well known fact that red cars and red planes go faster! I know, my childhood beliefs are seriously hard to shift!

Merlin Models have always had a malevolent reputation and are mostly built by pasty-looking modelers at full moon in the center of pentagrams. These kits have even been known to whisper: "Kiss me, and I shall be yours for ever..."

Whatever, Moa I must congratulate you on this build, but I know you have an ample supply of garlic and crucifixes under your modelling bench.

 

Cheers

 

JR

 

I had a good morning laugh, JR 🤣

You are very kind, and I appreciate you posting these generous words.

I do have the Planet resin kit of the same plane, and perhaps in the near (as light travels) future I may do another build of it, either in another of its red configurations of in more arcane schemes (there is a Brazilian on floats in red and -perhaps- cream that look really nice...)

As per the arts for defense against dark kits and ebil kitmakers, I must correct you there, as I only trust my training and the wisdom of my masters at the Shaolin Modeling Temple, and no other doctrines or devices.

"There is no kit..."

 

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