Yep my wife gave me this kit for a birthday I believe, second year we were married or so. Then we bought this house we are in now and that kit got pushed to the back of a crawl space. She found it yesterday rearranging that crawl space, a wall mirror was stting on top of it along with an 1/8" of dust, roofing particles from when the roof got done over etc. The box had a break in it, only one piece broken, the sheet metal that sits under the fuel tank and an easy fix. It’s cast in yellow and black and gray spru trees. And has brass plated parts. She has really had a bug for me to build this kit, we have been in that crawl space looking a couple of times since sept never thinking it was so far back under that mirror all along.
Now I need to research yellow paint for this kit. I’ve read where Canary Yellow is right. Any ideas on that ? I was looking at Model Master enamel Insignia yellow that looks pretty close. Haven’t researched Tamiya yet. Didn’t see Model Master acrylic having anything but they must, that stuff lays down nice and thin over Stynylrez with good coverage but don’t know about in yellow. Yellow can be fussy that way sometimes. Lacquer would be good too.
Interior: Every photo I see the seats are black. I really wanted to do them a brown/red leather color but can’t find one example. I find Stutz that way, which actually is what we thought this kit was but now know is the Mercer ( funny how the memory plays tricks on us).
Any thoughts appreciated. Obviously I have to fix the one broken piece and know it’s straight etc but don’t anticipate anything huge there. Hopefully glue and filler, sand and it’s not found to be too warped.
For some reason I’m attracted to vintage larger scale car kits. It must be due to the two Pocher kits I tried to build as a youngster. First I’d heard of Entex or a Mercer Raceabout.
Whatever yellow you choose, I’d urge you to use a good lacquer of some sort. I pretty much ruined the finish of my first car model in 50 years with acrylic paint and stupid Future.
Have fun with that kit, and a pic of the box would draw more interest, show folks what you are talking about. I only researched because of my specific interest.
It is likely that any color photos you see today are restored, so the color may not be as first built anyway. If you see a color you like in a photo, I wouldn’t be too worried about an absolute match. Same thing with the uphostery- do what looks nice to you. Build it as if you were restoring a real Mercer. I do that with airplanes too. I do polished Alclad finishes representing museum aircraft, even though few planes of the time were polished.
A lot of cars of the pre-WW1 era came with gray or tan tires, but you don’t see ones with those tires today.
I’m guessing you’d be hard-pressed to find a proper color code for the original ‘Mercer Yellow’ shade, but period illustrations I’ve seen…and authentically-resored collector’s cars, like Jay Leno’s…universally show a ‘canary’ or ‘lemon’ yellow, without any hint of orange. Any good-quality paint in that range should do. As Greg advised, I’d be tempted to go with lacquers; but, particularly given the age of the kit, it’s probably a good idea to test any paints used on a sprue section or unseen surface, first, just in case.
Whatever you do…please…share the photos of your work; it’s not often we get to see such an uncommon old kit!
I always painted my old cars in scale hobby paints , usually enamels because I knew it wouldn’t eat the plastic. I tried lacquer a few times back in the day and always ran into trouble, not so much these days but I prime now too, never did back then. This is old styrene though, so what ever I put down I’ll test first. That said, Model Master acrylic over stynlrez is a no brainer to put down with my own thinner, it sprays pretty much like lacquer or enamel and even buffs up pretty nice. But well it’s an old car, deserves old school paint lol !!
How do you get a photo up here anyway ? I took a shot just with my cell phone, emailed it to myself and stuck it in my computers Pictures folder. Can I go from there or does it need a photo hosting site that I don’t have (unless it can come from Onedrives cloud) ?
I am working on a motorcycle model and am using Tamiya “Lemon Yellow”. It sounded like the closest match to the original Norton yellow fiberglass color.
Hah ! Yes, I saw the lemon yellow in acrylic X8 at the store and bought some actually. I also bought some Model Master enamel gloss in Chrome Yellow that looks good if I want it a little darker or I could lighten it up with some white. So right now I have a couple of options.
Didn’t see any lacquer there, I’d have to go online if I want that.
The kit came with black tires, don’t think I’ll mess with that, especially given the tread pattern. Not sure the old buff colored tires ever had this tread.
Thanks. The parts were cast of course in yellow plastic, Italeri kit.
I primed white Tamiya, then a couple of coats of yellow, then Future. At one point the assembly of the fender into the front forks forced them apart and the shocks didn’t work. I soaked the painted part in hot water and put a clamp across it. That fixed the fit, but clouded the finish. However it buffed out nicely without damaging the paint.
Yes we were really glad to have found that kit, it was a nice gift in a time when there wasn’t much extra spending money around. She always managed nice gifts from the hobbyu store that was diagonally across from the apartment we lived in back then, stuff I wouldn’t purchase outright myself in those times.
Ah, so you did clear coat it, was curious about that. The Mercer body parts, well most of the kit really are also cast in yellow. I was planning on white or light gray Stynylrez primer.
Right now I have test drops of the MM drying and the wife informed me already it’s too mustard colored. And of course she is correct ! Seriously, the lemon yellow looks like the color. I have two spru sticks drying, one with Tamiya, the other MM and the Tamiya almost blends right in with the yellow plastic color which other than the plastic looking like plastic and the paint like paint, does look about right.
I had an Entex handheld game that was a ‘Space Invaders’ knock-off back in the early '80s. I had no idea they made model kits too until a few years ago.
which answers the question, how to post pictures on Fine Scale Models. Yes, you will need a host. But there a many that are free and will get you the results you want. Just read their specifics and if they make sense to you, then go ahead and use ‘em. If they seem to have too much complexity or seem not to you liking for any reason, then move on to another. I currently use a site called “postimages.org” but there are many others.
The elephant in the room is Photo Bucket. Which used to be a very good site, simple to use, easy to navigate and to store pictures on; HOWEVER they went through a metamorphous from user friendly to a Corporate ad driven company that caused many, many pictures on older form entry’s, all across the internet, to completely disappear. The cost of lost picture information to both the forums , of every countless differant subjects, and the people posting (some of whom have passed on) has been a very hard pill to swallow. [Note: the previous is my personal opinion, your mileage may very]
So read through the How To Post Pictures forum, see how really easy it is. And get to posting pictures.
Great find OMG! I look forward to watching the build.
CapnMac82
I’d spray it straight yellow since it’s not a metallic or pearl color. One thing I’d be worried about is the colored plastic. Red and yellow plastic were great for us as kids because that meant we didn’t have a shelf of all white cars. The downside is that unless a barrier coat was applied, sometimes the pigment used to color the plastic would leach through into the color coat. Usually a simple coat of Testor’s Silver from the rattle can is all that’s needed to prevent this. Cover that with your favorite primer and you should be good to go. As always, your mileage may vary and as always try this on a piece of sprue or a part that you’re sure won’t be seen before applying it to the body.
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