Dark red and dark green

Discovering that this Meccano was fun, had a go at finding an older outfit. This then started with finding an Outfit 1 that was not very complete, but the parts were in decent shape. No box (of course), but it did come with the book.

This set was sold in Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (and played with) in the early thirties and then brought to Holland as the family moved back.

With luck then remnants of another number 1 set of the same period popped up online - combined these make almost complete the parts for making all the models up to the Outfit 1. The remaining few missing bits and a set of new brass nuts and bolts were sourced from a specialist vendor of spares. He was very helpful in finding the spanners and parts all of the correct vintage for this set. Net result is a pretty complete set for the dark red and green (DRG) period of Meccano.

To keep the parts, a new box was made by converting an existing cardboard box. Adding cardboard dividers and covering it with liner paper, it does the job of keeping the parts and looks the part. For the finishing touch, a (fake) label was designed that vaguely resembles an Accessory Outfit label of the period.

There is of course some rust and wear on the parts but still very usable. Rusty nickel parts were cleaned and aluminium used to even out the spots to grey.

The paint on the parts is more fragile than expected. Meccano called this enamel, but it is definitely not glass-like. Also it's not on the level of cellulose-lacquer as used on most typewriters of that period. Even soapy water may attack the paint and weaken it. Washing them, some of the added parts' paint was unfortunately lightly damaged. This shows as lighter spots or streaks - the top green strip in the picture and e.g. a horizontal green brace (part 48a). Learned to be even more careful...

Also from the instruction book, model 1.60 called a 'Swivelling Crane' in the English version of the instruction book. It's on page 52.

Different style parts when compared to the fifties' set, different style of models as well. Again fun to explore, and learned more about how fragile paint can be...