Modeling the Munsters House by Craig Wheeler

Finally, a plastic kit of the Munster’s House! Moebius has done a great job of engineering it; assembly is very good. CultTVman also sells accessories for this kit. I bought a “Haunted House” base, made by ODG Studios, which represents the front yard; and the stone wall and photoetch set by ParaGrafix. I also bought a lighting kit made by VoodooFX. Note: this is not the lighting and sound kit that is available. It is only a lighting kit. My first goal was to prevent light leaks, so I primed the inside of the house with grey primer, and then added a second coat of flat black. I also added hot glue along the joints to the walls and floor and brushed on flat black over the glue.

The Printed Window Inserts are not very visible without the internal lighting. Since the inserts fit over the pins around the window, I chose to take a soldering iron and melt the pin, so that it has a flat head. This enables the inserts to be trapped, and I don’t have to worry about messy glue.

It was fun trying to authenticate the front yard with a variety of paint colors. I bought some scale trees and bushes to add. I really like the inclusion of Spot heading down the basement.

I hand mixed my colors for the house. I chose a tan for the siding, and the trim was a lightened version of the siding. The roof is a muddy brown. I did some slight and subtle weathering and washing to age the house.

It was now time to work with the lighting kit. I felt very intimidated over this. The instructions left a lot of choices up to the modeler. I worked slow and methodically, especially while I completed the soldering. I constantly tested the lights and was very pleased that I actually accomplished this task successfully! Now, it was a matter to install this into the house and I had to figure a way to mount the lights near the windows. I decided to buy some generic Lego blocks. This let me build a foundation for the lights to be attached to. I used hot glue on the blocks and the lights. I mounted the switch at the back of the house. Everything works perfectly! Though the house is all glued together, I did not glue the “barn roof”. This gives me access to the battery. This roof has a great fit even without glue.

Assembling the photoetch of the weather vane was difficult and clumsy, but I succeeded. The photoetch of the front gate and fence really add to the realism of this kit. But enough words, the proof is in the pictures!

Craig Wheeler