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| Top: Mellé's lumber yard; Bottom: Curren's |
I'm now rereading Gil Mellé's 1963 Railroad Model Craftsman articles. In the April issue I stumbled across the kitbashed project shown in the top half of the photo on the left, his so-called Split Level Lumber Yard. I immediately felt some deja vu. It was Art Curren's Artz Lumber Co. in his 1988 book, Kitbashing HO Model Railroad Structures, I was remembering.
Mellé's project made use of Atlas' then relatively new #750 Lumber Yard and Office kit and #704 Signal Tower kit, with the #801 Street Light kit thrown in for some extra detail. Curren's used 3 of the #750s and an AHM #15303 American farmhouse kit.
Art Curren preferred to call what he did kit-mingling instead of the more commonly used term kitbashing, which the publisher of his book used in the title. I think kit-mingling is more accurate, and I prefer it, but the market is what the market is.
Interestingly Mellé doesn't use any special terms to refer to what he's doing other than noting the resulting model is a hybrid and a customization:
This month I shall proceed to show a new plastic kit trick. In previous articles I’ve shown you how to customize many of the plastic buildings currently available. This time, if you want to try your hand we’ll not only do that but we’ll also throw another kit into the batch and really come up with a hybrid.
But, just look at the picture up there. The model is clearly a species that much later would be referred to as kit-mingled. Did Gil Mellé invent kit-mingling? Maybe not. I'd have to read back more into the late 1950s and early 1960s to know for certain. However, he clearly was one of its early practitioners.
I like 'kit-mingling' over 'bashing!
ReplyDeleteThe English language has truly taken a 'bashing' on ebay, on looking up the Atlas #750 I found a 'RARE' one @ US $238.80 the others are $30 to $40. Has rare taken on a totally new meaning in passing over the pond?
lol. Yes, 'rare' is often used instead of 'outrageously expensive for the gullible'. 'vintage' gets used that way too.
DeleteI must remember that ebay vendors specific definition.
ReplyDeleteAnother trick: 'see the photos for contents, they form part of offer'. The photos are carefully framed to leave out showing all the sprues/covered/damaged... sections, or last night the image quality was so poor it was impossible to see whether the figures were in the box, all the vendors items had equally bad images. I gave up - obviously didn't want a sale, or they badly need cataract surgery!
eBay is crazy. I always have a good laugh at the ones who list 'vintage' model railroad stuff from the '70s at crazy high prices and the same stuff will sell at a local swap meet for pennies on the dollar. I bought a Life Like loco at this year's swap meet for $10, with a promise that it ran, well it didn't, stripped gear inside, but for $10 I was willing to chance it. On eBay I'm seeing $90 prices with similar promises or $30US prices with no promises. Even that $30US has $20US shipping, so that all translates to around $67CDN for some possible dud that is only worth $10CDN. 'Vintage', 'rare', code words for 'if you buy this you might need your head examined'.
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