Merriman's Submarine Modelling Masterclass

[Wardster]

Here's my scans of David Merriman's 1984 back issue of "Fine Scale Modeler" magazine ...














I'll offer this thought, in "Bragging on David" mode -- How many other articles from this same time period, that were in print in any commonly-available hobbyist publication, were showing how to get bubble-free castings made, where the desired final parts had to be transparent?

Maybe there were some others out there, here or there, but I don't recall seeing them, in that time period? In a lot of publications, even much more recently, they didn't try to tackle that.

 

[Wardster]

At the risk of perhaps over-stating my argument (about how cool I think it is, that info of this high a quality level, and a usefulness level, was available in a commonly-available hobbyist publication, in the early-to-middle 1980's time period) I will offer the following scans, from that same back issue of FSM. Here's the one-page article about using an early (pre-modern-type-of-a-"PC") home computer, to type in a listing, and save it onto floppy disc; so you could do scale conversions. This was an article (as you'll see) by a different author -- but just one page after Merriman's article had ended, here's FSM telling users of things like the Commodore 64 home computer, how to use the hardware they had, to do cool things within the context of the scale modeling hobby.



And here's some higher-resolution detail images, from that same one-page article:





To put this into further perspective ... if I'm remembering my history correctly, as far as when guys like William Gibson (and various cool other authors, of course) were creating the fictional "Cyberpunk" genre of short stories and novels, and what equipment those authors had, when they were writing their still-famous stories, the hardware seen above was something that was available at that time period ... but a lot of them didn't have even THAT much technology, in their own homes! (I believe I likely still have a letter from Cyberpunk author, Pat Cadigan, thanking me for having thanked her, about one of her cool novels in that genre. A novel that she wrote, if memory serves, several years later than the stuff seen here, from the pages of FSM. It was, I believe, printed out on a dot matrix printer ... even years after this article in FSM.)

So there. Some folks say that David is too this, or too that ... or that he brags too much on his own self. Nah. My opinion, as one of the guy's he's put up with, and mentored, over the last couple of decades, is that David "has the receipts" showing how good he is; and for how long that has been the case. But if you're here, checking out this multi-page message thread, and seeing many examples of David's more-recent work, you likely already knew how good he is.

And no, he didn't put me up to saying any of this. I just figure "credit where due" is fair play.

 

[martinbayer]

At the risk of perhaps over-stating my argument (about how cool I think it is, that info of this high a quality level, and a usefulness level, was available in a commonly-available hobbyist publication, in the early-to-middle 1980's time period) I will offer the following scans, from that same back issue of FSM. Here's the one-page article about using an early (pre-modern-type-of-a-"PC") home computer, to type in a listing, and save it onto floppy disc; so you could do scale conversions. This was an article (as you'll see) by a different author -- but just one page after Merriman's article had ended, here's FSM telling users of things like the Commodore 64 home computer, how to use the hardware they had, to do cool things within the context of the scale modeling hobby.

View attachment 725386

And here's some higher-resolution detail images, from that same one-page article:

View attachment 725387

View attachment 725388

To put this into further perspective ... if I'm remembering my history correctly, as far as when guys like William Gibson (and various cool other authors, of course) were creating the fictional "Cyberpunk" genre of short stories and novels, and what equipment those authors had, when they were writing their still-famous stories, the hardware seen above was something that was available at that time period ... but a lot of them didn't have even THAT much technology, in their own homes! (I believe I likely still have a letter from Cyberpunk author, Pat Cadigan, thanking me for having thanked her, about one of her cool novels in that genre. A novel that she wrote, if memory serves, several years later than the stuff seen here, from the pages of FSM. It was, I believe, printed out on a dot matrix printer ... even years after this article in FSM.)

So there. Some folks say that David is too this, or too that ... or that he brags too much on his own self. Nah. My opinion, as one of the guy's he's put up with, and mentored, over the last couple of decades, is that David "has the receipts" showing how good he is; and for how long that has been the case. But if you're here, checking out this multi-page message thread, and seeing many examples of David's more-recent work, you likely already knew how good he is.

And no, he didn't put me up to saying any of this. I just figure "credit where due" is fair play.

Thank you, kind Sir - some narration/explanation to all those silent pictures at last!

 

[Wardster]

Thank you, kind Sir - some narration/explanation to all those silent pictures at last!

Heehee! You're quite welcome, good sir. I'm glad to be able to do what I'm doing.

I have learned a lot from that man's various articles and DVDs, over the years. Only seems fair that I try to repay some small portion of that, by showing that I value what David has done in the past.

For what it is worth: you get a fair amount of the credit for having pushed this idea onto the top of my "to do" list. For years now, I've idly thought that being a part of a group that was going to try to "archive" David's past work, would be a cool thing to be involved with. But your comments -- (from a week or so ago; about wanting to see more of David's past how-to various articles) -- were a help to me, to see that, yes, there's a "demand" for people to see more of what he had shared. that not everyone had been obsessively "stashing away the good stuff" ... if only because some of it isn't well known. Heck, the article I just posted, that was from 1984, the current employees at Fine Scale Modeler don't seem to even remember that company once "did". (I'm not trying to pick on them, or anything.) I'm mainly just saying that not everything from years gone by, or decades gone by, ends up being decently preserved. And from my perspective, that's a darned shame.

 

[Wardster]

Next up ... another one of the four articles I know of, that David Merriman had published in FSM, some time ago. This one's another article on molding and casting, but it's not a repeat of what he said before. Notice that he's making use of GRP or glass reinforced plastic, within this article; plus offering ideas on how to "clay up" two-part molds, using materials most hobbyists use. (If they are into making master parts, and then reproducing them; which some of us often do, for various projects. No sense making the same sub-assembly, by hand, a gazillion times.)

On a personal note, this is likely one of my favorite articles from any publication, on that general (mold-making and cast-making) topic. I've used the heck out of what David Merriman offered to anyone who would take the time to read what he had to say, and to try the materials, etc.

Reminder -- This back issue might (?) still currently (as of the time of this writing) be available in "real thing, on paper" mode, directly from that company's back issue portion of their web site:

May 1994 | Finescale Modeler Magazine

FineScale Modeler magazine - Essential magazine for scale model builders, model kit reviews, how-to scale modeling, and scale modeling products.

finescale.com

I have no idea how many copies they might still have left, of that back issue, so "strike while the iron is hot" seems to me like good advice; especially considering that it's the only back issue that seems to be available, by Fine Scale Modeler, out of the four articles I am scanning in, here.













And that's it for tonight's uploads. Next up (?) if nothing goes sideways on me, should be the last of the four FSM articles (the CSS Hunley, in scratch-built form) I had, of David's. And then, the last two articles that came from Sci-Fi & Fantasy Models (issues #29 and #30) back before they had become a "mook" or a "bookazine". The 1990s magazine version of SF&FM kicked butt, as some of you may just now be discovering. After that, I'll need to scan in the three remaining "others" ... but all in due time, I guess. I'm kind of taking it slow-and-easy, so I keep the amount of mistakes I make, while scanning or posting (but not necessarily when I'm typing up these notes) to a reasonable minimum.

Thanks again, to David Merriman, for being so good about letting folks here, see this coolness!

 

[Wardster]

Since I'm thinking ahead, to uploading David Merriman's "CSS Hunley" build, from the April 1987 back issue of FSM / Fine Scale Modeler, it dawned on me to include this cool info, too:

(web link)

HatchingAlligator

Besides teaching me a lot of how-to techniques, over the past couple of decades worth of reading whatever I found that David has written and shared with others, I also picked up at least a portion of his fascination with submarine vessels, as they were made in the 1800's.

Hard to believe, when a person initially encounters the idea (ah, what Public Schools didn't bother teaching any of us, back in the day?) but both sides of the ACW / American Civil War were working hard on various "Infernal Machines" ... including submersible naval inventions.

This DVD about the USS Alligator (the "Navy's First Sub") is a DVD that I bought a copy of, and have loved watching it, multiple times. I would highly recommend this DVD, to anyone who has a fascination with naval warfare, or submersible naval vessels from Jules Verne's time. Know that this interesting DVD's makers prominently feature David in this documentary; along with his highly accurate model -- which was built from what appears to be the designer's drawings; as stored in a French archive. Which radio controlled model actually gets tested in a classified modern day facility ... 1800's technology, being put through it's paces, by modern folks.

 

[martinbayer]

Heehee! You're quite welcome, good sir. I'm glad to be able to do what I'm doing.

I have learned a lot from that man's various articles and DVDs, over the years. Only seems fair that I try to repay some small portion of that, by showing that I value what David has done in the past.

For what it is worth: you get a fair amount of the credit for having pushed this idea onto the top of my "to do" list. For years now, I've idly thought that being a part of a group that was going to try to "archive" David's past work, would be a cool thing to be involved with. But your comments -- (from a week or so ago; about wanting to see more of David's past how-to various articles) -- were a help to me, to see that, yes, there's a "demand" for people to see more of what he had shared. that not everyone had been obsessively "stashing away the good stuff" ... if only because some of it isn't well known. Heck, the article I just posted, that was from 1984, the current employees at Fine Scale Modeler don't seem to even remember that company once "did". (I'm not trying to pick on them, or anything.) I'm mainly just saying that not everything from years gone by, or decades gone by, ends up being decently preserved. And from my perspective, that's a darned shame.

Thank you once again - I'm the son of a Librarian, so I'm acutely aware and appreciative of the value of preserving information.

 

[Wardster]

Thank you once again - I'm the son of a Librarian, so I'm acutely aware and appreciative of the value of preserving information.

Being a "Son of a Librarian" sounds like "bragging rights," to me.

But then again, what do I know? When you had made that comment, some little time back, about me having posted a "wall of text," my first thought was, "Hey, that sounds like a great Borg name!" Or at least a fitting one, for me.

I typically have to try to really force myself to "behave" around people who don't like reading -- which is sadly far too many people, in my opinion. I don't interact much, online, in public, these days. And I haven't, in ages. Some people wouldn't consider that saying "TL / DR" (Too Long; Didn't Read) could be potentially "triggering" to other people, but I've been tempted, a time or three in the long-ago past, to have come up with a reply to TL / DR, along the lines of YFTI / JRAN -- or "You're Far Too Illiterate; Just Run Along Now". I've had people (in real life) tell me that, more or less, I was giving them the "long version" of some answer, and they wanted the six-word version. To which I tend to reply, "You don't really want the information," or similar.

It's good to know that some other people still appreciate books, and magazines, and the like!

 

[Wardster]

Okay, folks, here's the "CSS Hunley" article that David Merriman once wrote -- from the 1987 back issue of FSM / Fine Scale Modeler. Ah, the glorious cover artwork: from a time when "men were men," models got built by hand / from scratch, and it was considered to be a major selling point for hobbyist publications to list three different sets of scale drawings, right on the front cover.

 

[Wardster]

Here's the first half of a very cool two-part article, written by David Merriman. It ran in issues #29 and #30 in the (older, 1990's) version of SF&FM -- which was named "Sci-Fi & Fantasy Models" at that time. (But over time, "SF&FM" had a few slight differences on that name.)
















"Part Two" of this two-part'er will be up next ... then, I'm mostly (but not entirely) out of things to scan in, and share with you folks. I have one more issue of SF&FM to upload; then articles from three different back issues of Scale Modeler magazine have to be scanned in, and uploaded. Then, I'm all out of other back issues I can scan-and-upload ... unless anyone tells me about some back issues that I didn't know about, that have some of David's cool content in them.

 

[Wardster]

Here's the second part of that very nicely detailed, information-packed, two-part article that David Merriman published in the late 1990s, in "Sci-Fi & Fantasy Models".

Once again, I want to thank both David Merriman for allowing me to scan this stuff in, and post it, here on "his" part of these forums; and I would also like to thank Mike Reccia, who is/was the co-publisher of "SF&FM," for his kind permission along these lines.

Much appreciated, gentlemen!

 

[merriman]

 

[merriman]

 

[merriman]

 

[Scott Kenny]

Wow, that is some serious scuzz on that Kilo! Deck Division to the basin for scrubbing!

 

[merriman]

Wow, that is some serious scuzz on that Kilo! Deck Division to the basin for scrubbing!

You can almost smell the mung!

 

[merriman]

 

[merriman]

 

[merriman]

 

[Wardster]

Here's another one of David Merriman's in-print articles, from the late 1980s ... with (as was mentioned before) these scans of his articles all being done by a long-time fan of David's work, and with David's knowledge and consent. You hardcore nautical folks should enjoy this article from the late 1980s. As you can see, it's a lot longer (more pages) and more detailed than many in-print articles might tend to be, these days -- with nice reference photos of real submarines, along with various photos of the finished model, and of course, pics / words of work in-progress.
























Okay ... with this info posted, that makes it only two more such articles to go: a two-part'er in this same publication, about the NR-1 nautical research sub. (But, fair warning, guys: those two scans / uploads may not happen, super fast. Real Life might keep me away from the keyboard / computer / scanner, longer than would be ideal. Hopefully, any wait won't be too long.) To be as clear as possible: I'm NOT saying that only two other articles were ever in print, by David Merriman -- I'm just saying, "That is all I know about, and have printed-on-paper copies of, in my personal collection, at present". I'm sure there's still many more articles out there.

With that all said ... "Back now to your regular channel, with Mister Merriman as your host" ...

 

[merriman]

 

[Scott Kenny]

You can almost smell the mung!

No almost about it, boss.

 

[merriman]

 

[merriman]

DONE... FINALLY!!!!​

 

[Scott Kenny]

Looks awesome!

You still need to "acquire" a picture of the Indian bow-art for the next Kilo, though... As a decal or Cricut stencil, I'm not evil enough to insist you freehand it, even if I think you do have the skills to do that.

 

[merriman]

BACK TO THE TYPE-21... FOR THE OCTOBER 'FLEET-RUN'​

 

[merriman]

 

[merriman]

 

[Wardster]

I'll make a quick interruption to David's (always) fine work, to post the scans I made of part one of a two-part article David once wrote, about the "NR-1 Naval Research Submarine" ...

 

[Wardster]

And here is the concluding (second) installment of a two-part article from 1992, showing David Merriman's 1 / 192nd scale model of the "NR-1 Naval Research Submarine" ...

















... and with that, that's all of the printed-on-paper articles I personally own copies of, and could scan in. I'm sure that other printed articles exist, out there, in various publications. I just don't know which publications and/or which specific back issues such articles would have appeared in. If anyone reading this knows of others of David Merriman's in-print articles, please let me and the other readers here, know -- with enough specificity that such articles can be obtained.

 

[merriman]

Thank you, Ward. Most appreciated my friend.

David

 

[merriman]

 

[merriman]

 

[Wardster]

Thank you, Ward. Most appreciated my friend.

David

Glad to be able to do it, good sir! My pleasure!

On your latest few batches of pictures: is the Meguiar's brand "Mirror Glaze 87 High Temp Mold Release Wax" a new preference for you, product-wise? Or an acceptable alternate? I guess I'm asking if you still use Butcher's Bowling Alley Wax, as well? Thanks to having paid rather close attention -- (back when you were doing your Cabal Reports, some few years back) -- I had tried the latter product. I had really liked it, as a mold release agent. Enough to have an almost empty tin of it. I was about to stock back up on it, before too long -- but before I did, I figured I'd ask.

 

[martinbayer]

Glad to be able to do it, good sir! My pleasure!

On your latest few batches of pictures: is the Meguiar's brand "Mirror Glaze 87 High Temp Mold Release Wax" a new preference for you, product-wise? Or an acceptable alternate? I guess I'm asking if you still use Butcher's Bowling Alley Wax, as well? Thanks to having paid rather close attention -- (back when you were doing your Cabal Reports, some few years back) -- I had tried the latter product. I had really liked it, as a mold release agent. Enough to have an almost empty tin of it. I was about to stock back up on it, before too long -- but before I did, I figured I'd ask.

Best of luck for actually getting straightforward answers to your pertinent questions.

 

[merriman]

Glad to be able to do it, good sir! My pleasure!

On your latest few batches of pictures: is the Meguiar's brand "Mirror Glaze 87 High Temp Mold Release Wax" a new preference for you, product-wise? Or an acceptable alternate? I guess I'm asking if you still use Butcher's Bowling Alley Wax, as well? Thanks to having paid rather close attention -- (back when you were doing your Cabal Reports, some few years back) -- I had tried the latter product. I had really liked it, as a mold release agent. Enough to have an almost empty tin of it. I was about to stock back up on it, before too long -- but before I did, I figured I'd ask.

Not exactly new, I've been using that tin of wax -- the Mirror Glaze 87 -- for the past twenty-some years. The Butcher's Bowling Alley Wax works just as well.

David

 

[merriman]

Best of luck for actually getting straightforward answers to your pertinent questions.

I always do my best to explain myself when a specific question is asked. When a picture of mine evokes a good question, I work diligently to formulate a cogent and complete narrative of explanation.

Your pointed statement above would suggest I have not met that obligation.

How, do you suggest, I do a better job of presentation? I'm all ears. Never too old to learn.

David

 

[merriman]

 

[martinbayer]

I always do my best to explain myself when a specific question is asked. When a picture of mine evokes a good question, I work diligently to formulate a cogent and complete narrative of explanation.

Your pointed statement above would suggest I have not met that obligation.

How, do you suggest, I do a better job of presentation? I'm all ears. Never too old to learn.

David

Thank you for the clarification, Sir!

 

[Wardster]

Best of luck for actually getting straightforward answers to your pertinent questions.

I have considerable faith in both the quality and the quantity of any of Mister Merriman's replies. I try to learn what I can, up front, from whatever is offered ... and then, I try to ask good questions, for any stuff I don't understand. That has worked very well for me, for twenty-years-plus, now.