Roadster Cabriolet model (Meccano 18202)

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in storage

Roadster Cabriolet model (Meccano 18202)

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location:

in storage


2017


A green and silver pull-and-go model of a Roadster Cabriolet, made from Meccano.

We thought we'd have a look at this kit, as Meccano production in Calais is ending, and this was one of the last models to be produced with entirely French production.

Contents

The kit contains an allen key and a spanner (with red plastic grips, that helps to prevent them getting lost), a manual with construction plans for three of the five vehicles, with the plans for the last two being online-only.

  • The three models in the booklet are: the modern roadster featured on the front of the box, an old-fashioned 1950s racing car, and a custom car with tilted roof.
  • The two online-only designs are a 13930s-style roadster with running-boards and a 1970s Formula One racecar with front spoiler.

First Impressions

We decided to build the cover model, as it seemed to be the most ambitious.

Things we learned:

  • It's annoying that the five different models (other than perhaps the first one) aren't named.
  • Meccano can be frustrating. For anyone who hasn't used Meccano for years, the design is not all that easy to build, and you find yourself rediscovering the art of doing multiple things with multiple fingers on one hand, and using your chin and mouth when you run out of hands. If you're not particularly dextrous when you start, you will be by the time you finish!

This is, it has to be said, one of the factors that leads to Meccano being considered "educational" for young engineers -- you learn lots of different ways of using a screwdriver (or finger).

  • In a world where Lego is criticised for being too easy, Mecano is sometimes difficult by design.
  • The diagrams are somewhat minimalist and cryptic. Again, this may be to some degree deliberate (teaching the art of reading engineering drawings), but the minimalist explanations might be the result of trying to use the same manual for thirteen(!) different languages. Think of Ikea furniture instructions, and you're not too far off.
  • The central plastic pull-and-go motor has lots of recessed squares that fit the nuts ... which is nice because with these holes, you don't need a spanner to keep a nut in place.
  • After bolting pieces together at a polite 90 degrees as it shows in the manual, you'll find that you later need to change some of the angles. you can do this without loosening the bolts by poking the allen key through unused holes and applying sideways leverage.

The build

When we got about a third of the way through the build we were really very pleased, we had the beginnings of a nice looking geometrical bodyshell surrounding the motor that would also work well as a generic spaceship ... where things got difficult was when it was time to complete the front and back.

  • In Stage 12, two right-angle plates jutting up from the on the back of the base have to be bolted onto two thinner right-angled plates jutting down from the back of the upper bodyshell. At first sight this seems absolutely impossible, as the upper pair seem to just out at least one full Meccano-hole-spacing further than the pair of lugs on the base that they are supposed to connect to. However, with some brute force and wiggling, during which some of the plastic strips rotate and bend alarmingly, the holes start looking as if they might almost have a change of lining up, if they weren't just too far away. After about three tries with a lot of grunting, the holes lined up enough to just be able to put a screw through. We ended up developing a technique where a bolt threaded through the misaligned holes was able to bite hard enough on one side of the hole that we could use the allen key to rotate the bolt and pull the pieces further together, until we could eventually get a bolt onto the end of the nut. The whole geometry of the bodyshell neds to twist and warp until you have the two nuts in place.
  • At this point, the two side-pieces in Stage 13 start to seem feasible. With some more wrenching you can get the final nuts in place, after which Stages 12 and 13 work together to create the final shell, and you should be able to tighten up the 12 and 13 end nuts.
  • Once you've managed Stages 12 and 13 reward yourself with a break. Because you'll have to do something similar, and even more tricky with Stage 17 and Stage 18. Again, the whole geometry of the end of the car will need to shift and morph and rotate joints into new, slightly different positions in order to get it all to line up. Stage 17 will get you partway there, stage 18 plus more brute force with warp things some more, and then trying to manually crush the car into the correct shape with your hands will get things progressively closer and closer to completion, until finally you can get the two plastic rivets roughly into place. After more wiggling, you should be able to get the Stage 17 bolts tightened, and the Stage 18 rivets at least in position. Extreme pressure with fingernails may get you closer to completion ... then call it a night, leave the car to rest overnight, and go looking for some snipe-nosed pliers.
  • After completing the car, right away you#ll find that it doesn't run because the wheel-arches press to hard against the tyres. Don't give up.
  • More squeezing and moulding will eventually get the wheel-arches clear and give rise to a fully-functioning car, at which point the Stage 18 plastic rivets will start to align better, so that they start to look like they can almost be closed. And this is where you finally use your snipe-nosed pliers to force the metal plates together around the plastic rivets, being careful not to damage the plastic, and ... you're done!

Conclusions

  • Despite what you might have read online, and despite its apparent need to violate both common sense and the laws of geometry, the Roadster Cabriolet model on the cover does actually work. Honest. Pictures provided as proof.
  • Halfway through the cover model we were loving the set, after that we started hating it, and it was only after some seriously squishing and squashing that we finally got it to go together, and grudgingly acknowledged that the designers weren't lying to us.
  • Is the cover model a suitable first model for an eight-year-old who's never used Meccano before? Definitely not.
  • If you're new to Meccano, and you think that this set is an interesting start-point, what you'll tend to do, naturally, is open the manual and start building the cover model. DO NOT DO THIS
  • Instead, go to page 13, and build the simple little racecar that requires minimal bending. Once you've built THAT, you'll have some idea of what's expected of you, you'll have had a chance to play with the resulting car, and your confidence with have improved. Maybe, even then, try one of the intermediate models next. Finish with the roadster.
  • Even someone who's used old-style Meccano before might find this model tricky, if the idea of bending strips in situ after they've already been screwed together seems a bit alien.
Afterthoughts
After watching the build videos, perhaps our problem was that we're used to building "permanent" models, and tightened the nuts and bolts more than the folks making the videos. Maybe if we knew less about traditional Meccano, and hadn't done such a good job of making everything nice and tight, it might have been easier to get the model to flex into shape.

External links


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