Relationship of Inpact/Merit/Pyro/Lifelike/Lindberg Kits

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SJPONeill
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Re: Relationship of Inpact/Merit/Pyro/Lifelike/Lindberg Kits

Post by SJPONeill »

There's been quite a bit of recent discussion on this topic over at the Scale Model Nostalgia group as well (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ScaleModelingNostalgia/;)
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Re: Relationship of Inpact/Merit/Pyro/Lifelike/Lindberg Kits

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

Matt,

Talking Merit/Inpact only (Airfix/Fury is confusing discussion) -- I always thought they were different (and still do, but...)

I do not have a Merit kit to fondle.

I pulled out my Inpact Bulldog kit and compared it to the pix in Don's build as best I could. The engine, the fuselage details appear to match line-by-line, panel-by-panel, even what I think is an unremoved ejector mark on the fin is there. The stand holder is present in the same place on the trailing edge of the lower wing. Strut holes, rigging holes, etc, etc. To me, my Inpact kit looks exactly like what I can see of what Don says is a Merit kit.

My kit does have an Inpact stamp inside and it is, like Paul says, an original stamping and not a change from another one.

We need pix of the Merit Bulldog sprues & interior, preferably side-by-side with one of the others, but the Merit kits are hard to find and cost way too much on eBay for me to buy one just to win (or lose) a point.

I'll take/post pix of my Inpact Bulldog tomorrow unless someone beats me to it.
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Re: Relationship of Inpact/Merit/Pyro/Lifelike/Lindberg Kits

Post by PaulBradley »

SJPONeill wrote:There's been quite a bit of recent discussion on this topic over at the Scale Model Nostalgia group as well (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ScaleModelingNostalgia/;)
Do you have a link to the actual conversation, please, Simon? Not a very user friendly format, it has to be said! :shock:
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Re: Relationship of Inpact/Merit/Pyro/Lifelike/Lindberg Kits

Post by SJPONeill »

I don't think Yahoo gets the concept of user-friendliness...I'll se eif I can dig it up as I deleted the conversation as it occured as it wasn't one of my areas of interest...stand-by...
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Re: Relationship of Inpact/Merit/Pyro/Lifelike/Lindberg Kits

Post by cameraman1944 »

Photos of the Airfix Hawker Fury

Image
P1100030 by cameraman1944, on Flickr
Image
P1100031 by cameraman1944, on Flickr
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Re: Relationship of Inpact/Merit/Pyro/Lifelike/Lindberg Kits

Post by cameraman1944 »

This Fairey Flycatcher was made from a Pyro Kit.
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2980428847_de32f746ef_o by cameraman1944, on Flickr
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Re: Relationship of Inpact/Merit/Pyro/Lifelike/Lindberg Kits

Post by mattbacon »

Now, without wanting to delve too far into kit forensics (;-)), I'd say that looks like a significantly older tooling than the Airfix Spitfire Vb and Bf109, which were their "first" 1/48 scale kits, in 1979. Look at the Spitfire Vb, for example (here, if you don't have one to hand):

http://americanscalemodel.freeforums.org/post1030.html;

All the parts are contained _within_ much larger frames, and the vast majority of the sprue runners leading to the individual parts are square to those frames. The Fury has its small parts hanging off a central injection spine, and most of the runners are at an angle to that central spine, in the direction you'd expect to ease the flow of plastic from the central injection point. That approach is typical of the older kits in my stash, but decidedly NOT typical of Airfix new-tools of the 70s and 80s...

Of course, it's possible that the Fury originally had rectangular frames, and someone has carefully trimmed them off to recycle the plastic, but if they didn't do that in 1979, why would they start in 1980...?

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Re: Relationship of Inpact/Merit/Pyro/Lifelike/Lindberg Kits

Post by JamesPerrin »

I am convinced that the Inpact and Merit kits are unrelated.

http://modelingmadness.com/review/preww ... ulldog.htm; See Kit section.

The subsequent history on the Inpact tools is well known and clear. The only issue is the relation between Airfix and Merit Fury tools.
mattbacon wrote:All the parts are contained _within_ much larger frames, and the vast majority of the sprue runners leading to the individual parts are square to those frames. The Fury has its small parts hanging off a central injection spine, and most of the runners are at an angle to that central spine, in the direction you'd expect to ease the flow of plastic from the central injection point. That approach is typical of the older kits in my stash, but decidedly NOT typical of Airfix new-tools of the 70s and 80s...
Yes it the first thing that struck me, the sprue layout does not match the 1980 date stamp.

The diagonal sprue branches from the main trunk do match this image I found of a Merit Sopwidth Camel sprue shot

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Merit-British ... 0861398737;
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Re: Relationship of Inpact/Merit/Pyro/Lifelike/Lindberg Kits

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

I'm an idiot.
Somehow I got it in my head that Don was doing a Merit Bulldog.

The topic title and the first sentence clearly say Inpact.

I'm an idiot, and I apologize to all idiots for lumping myself in with them.

End of my discussion.
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Re: Relationship of Inpact/Merit/Pyro/Lifelike/Lindberg Kits

Post by ollieholmes »

Ill take some photos of a Airfix Fury and a Inpact/ Pyro Fury together in a bit. Ive got a growing number of 1:48 inter war biplane kits in the stash as i rather like the colourfull schemes they wore.
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Re: Relationship of Inpact/Merit/Pyro/Lifelike/Lindberg Kits

Post by ollieholmes »

Here we are, first off Airfix:
Image

Image

Image

Image

And the Pyro one:
Image

Image

Image

Image

Im loathe to open the packets up as i dont want to loose any parts but i can try and take better photos if needed. I do have a Pyro box but no kit, its got other kits in it.
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