Does anyone remember...

[mal brewer]

Posted by David perry 1 on 30/06/2020 20:01:56:

Posted by David perry 1 on 29/06/2020 22:

Merlin! That was my engine.

Merlin ! Had Super-Merlin ( red cylinder head ) back in the day. Still got a Merlin, it's in a Vic Smeed Ballerina on rudder/elevator, and contrary to my memories, starts easily and runs a treat................Mal.

[Martin McIntosh]

I read recently that the Super Merlin was just a production example which happened to start easier so was tarted up a bit and renamed. How mine ever got up those trees I do not know because I could flick them all day without even a pop.

1st FF was a Veron Cardinal with a blinking DC Bantam, another non starter. It came with white tissue which I attached with flour and water paste but I wanted it red so just slapped on some coloured dope. The instructions made no mention of the fact that clear dope shrinks it. Flew once, straight into Longmoor pool.

[buster prop]

I grew up in Maidstone, Kent and remember as a schoolboy going to Shaw’s shop at 60 High Street. In the late 1950’s down at the back was a model department while at the front of the shop they displayed prams and nursery furniture. Shaw’s stocked Kiel Kraft and Mercury kits, Jetex motors and small Diesel engines. The first model I ever built was the KK Achilles then some of the flying scale models. For some reason I liked the Me109 and must have built about 4 of them. One success was the Mercury Gnome glider which flew really well then a KK Nomad glider which ended up in a tree in Mote Park. A Jetex powered KK Hunter caught fire. I later bought an Allbon (DC) Merlin from Shaw’s which was the only engine I kept. I also owned a DC Bantam, noisy but gutless and a Frog 50 which I bought in a jumble sale for 5 Shillings and never managed to start. Unfortunately the Merlin was lost in a flyaway when I returned to model flying in the 1970’s. It wasn’t very powerful but easy to start which meant a lot at the time. I gave it all up in about 1963, for the usual reasons, so don’t know if there was ever another model shop in the town.

[mal brewer]

Yes I think the 'Super Merlin' was just a bit of a gimmick to increase sales.It had a red anodised cylinder head and spinner, a fitted fuel tank and a fancy box. I don't think there was any actual difference mechanically to a standard 'Merlin'.They could still be a pig to start...............Mal

[Bob Cotsford]

I had a DC Merlin but I must have got a lucky one as I don't remember having problems starting it. I ran it in c/l models with an aircooled head and in an 18" Aerokits launch with a marine head screwed on. The one that beat me was the Frog 80.

[David perry 1]

Indeed they could be a pig. Mine was red too so presumably a Super!it never flew though and was a pig to start. I think the only dieawls ive ever succceeded with were PAW.

The merlin did xonvert me to glow engines and if i close my eyes i can still smell the little .19 glow i had. Eventually built a Taurus trainer. I was about 13 and it would be another 10 years before i learnt to fly rc properly on a super sixty.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

I remember the hours winding the quickstart spring on my Merlin in my dad's garage hoping for more than a short lived brrrrpp until I discarded the quickstart and learnt the art of flicking repeatedly and quickly to get enough heat into the engine. I didn't mind too much as the hard work was accompanied by that wonderful aroma of ether, castor and paraffin.

Flick forward [ouch] more than 40 years and I built a Phantom Mite from a downloaded plan around a Merlin that was given to me by a work colleague and I was amazed by how easily it started and ran. The only problem was getting a little dizzy after a few circuits - I'm sure that never happened back in the day!

[Braddock, VC]

I remember Bud Morgans, it was an extended trip for me from the western valleys, train to newport, then change to the express to cardiff and a walk to the castle arcade. I went there several times to buy glow fuel for my B class racer and also bought an enya 15d in the late 50s that was very short lived following a line cut in combat.

I also remember a model shop in either Paignton or Torquay that displayed (for several years) an uncovered KK Scout biplane (I think I'm pretty sure that's what it was) in the window in the early 50s, started me on a love affair with bipes. Funny how I'm so useless at flying them.

[brokenenglish]

My first engine came from Bud Morgan. A Frog 150, bought by post in 1951.

Later (early sixties), I was lucky enough to live fairly close to Cutriss's Model Shop in Doncaster. Probably the best model shop I've ever seen.

[mal brewer]

Posted by Braddock, VC on 01/07/2020 08:40:16:

I remember Bud Morgans, it was an extended trip for me from the western valleys, train to newport, then change to the express to cardiff and a walk to the castle arcade. I went there several times to buy glow fuel for my B class racer and also bought an enya 15d in the late 50s that was very short lived following a line cut in combat.

I also remember a model shop in either Paignton or Torquay that displayed (for several years) an uncovered KK Scout biplane (I think I'm pretty sure that's what it was) in the window in the early 50s, started me on a love affair with bipes. Funny how I'm so useless at flying them.

Hi Braddock, I mentioned the two model shops in Torquay in an earlier post. They were both in Union Street, one was down towards the town centre,and I seem to recall it was more of a toyshop that also sold model aircraft. The other shop was a little out of the town centre, past the town hall and up a climb for about half a mile or so. It was almost opposite a small church or chapel, and it was a proper model shop.Can't remember the names of these shops,I was very young then,and as you say, this was in the early '50's. Don't remember a KK scout. Do either of these shops ring a bell for you,could they be the one's you remember ?..................Mal

[Rontorbay]

On 29/06/2020 at 08:09, leccyflyer said:

When I started in the hobby my main model shop was Forsters in Wigan, opposite the market. A small but very well stocked model shop fairly typical of the 70's. Tony's Models in Pemberton was another shop that I used occasionally-at the time I felt it catered more to the radio flyer and I was still dabbling in free flight and control line My radio days started with a trip to The Manchester Model Shop in Deansgate, where I got my first radio model and Roland Scott;s in Walkden with the infamous Gem 1+1 radio set.. I vaguely recall a rare visit to Roy Lever's shop in Bolton, though that might have come later. Stan Catchpole's Model World in Hope Street in Liverpool was a big shop, and I did make a few special trips there, but by the time I had moved back to Liverpool my hobby was on sabbatical,

Starting back in the hobby in the 1990's I was lucky enough to have the fabulous Steve Webbs Models and Hobbies within walking distance -though I only walked there a couple of times, carrying a big kit up Frodsham Hill never appealed. My travels took me to many model shops around the country over the next 20 years, with notable examples being West London Models, Marionville Models in Edinburgh and Leeds Model Shop.

Nowadays the only real model shop within reach is Scoonies Hobbies in Kirkaldy, which is back to the small, but quite well stocked, traditional model shop, so I'm mostly online and internet shopping these days, plus classified, eBay and FB marketplace.

 I bought a Gem 1+1 radio from Roland Scott. I spilt fuel on the gimbals which glued them solid, and rendered the radio useless. Cost me £101 with receiver and four servos

[leccyflyer]

I guess that would have been a Gem 4 set - a hundred quid was well out of my budget, which could only stretch to the Gem 1+1 set, with a single proprtional channel and a button for throttle. A couple of guys who flew on the waste ground which saw my first failures in radio control used to have Gem 4 sets and Yamamoto trainers, which they had great fun with.

 

Fifty years on and thanks to Phil Green, Shaun Garrity and Wayne H in Australia I now have another Gem 1+1 set, with a mission to successfully fly my new Keil Kraft Outlaw using that set. The Outlaw has flown beautifully over the past few months using modern radio and my 2.4ghz conversion of a MacGregor Digimac III.