Does anyone remember...

[Engine Doctor]

I know its a different area but did anyone use the model shops in Clapham Junction Sw London. I used to visit and wonder at the window display at Russ' models on Battersea Rise . The was another model shop at Falcon road just round the corner from the Falcon Pub But cant remember the name . It shut down long before Russ' did . I think Mr Russ continued until 2013 and there is a video of him in the shop here on Vimeo . A real old fashioned model shop. If you went in on a friday evening there was hardly any room ! it was packed with everyone buying stuff for the weekend . Most smoked roll ups and with the smell f diesel fumes from engines tested it was a smell I will never .forget

[Geoff S]

Thanks, ED. That video certainly reminds me of Wayland's in Heanor but I was in my mid-50s before I was a customer.

Geoff

[Colin Carpenter]

Used to get our Model Racing Hulls from the shop in Clapham ! First synthetic fuel which used to absorb the moisture in the boats and bearing failure became common , quickly ! What about Model Aircraft Supplies Camberwell ? Can’t remember his name , but stopped off from work on Fridays for bits. He had a lathe in the basement and would turn down the flywheels on Mercos to get them lower in the hulls. Nice , helpful chap !! Lewisham Model Centre , supplier of first Mcgregor S/C and Wave Rider ! Colin

[kc]

The December 76 Radio Modeller is one of the old magazines I have in my collection. The feature plan in that issue was the Brian Peckham 60 inch Mongrel design.

There are lots of old mags online on the Outerzone sister site www.rclibrary.co.uk

but not that one.

[kc]

Here in Essex like everywhere else we used to have plenty of model shops. Back in the 1950's Hornchurch had Johns Model shop and another shop next to the Towers cinema. Later Radio Active had their shop at Ardleigh Green then Upminster. Then Colin Bliss at Elm Park. When they closed Modellers World opened up. All now gone. Drive a few miles and Modelland at Hainault ( became Ron Rees, Bennets and eventually Als Hobbies.) lasted more than most.

Now we have a shop at Hockley or we have to venture to Kent via the notoriously busy and expensive Dartford crossing but it's not many miles to Avicraft or TJD models. Preference now is to visit Balsa Cabin at Maldon to stock up with balsa and fittings.

All these shops had easy parking and enthusiastic owners but only a few survive today. However it may be that hobbies could come back into fashion - people don't have restaurants or pubs to go to, cannot spend their money on foreign holidays, others have time but little money so what are they going to do? Make things by hand perhaps?

[mal brewer]

Posted by Mr Chinnery on 28/06/2020 14:29:09:

Going back even further, anyone remember The Model Aerodrome across from Colmore Row and the Cathedral in Brum? I couldn't have been more than 8-9, but it was love/obsession the first time I looked into that big concave (no reflections!) window. My first KK kits from there too with saved pocket money and also my Dad bought me my Albon Merlin there.

Yes, I remember 'Model Aerodrome' on the corner of Cherry Street, they also had a 'factory' on Stratford road,where they produced their own-brand models. There was also a couple of shops in Birmingham city centre,forget the name of one of them,but it was near New Street station,and had a model railway circuit in the window,which would operate if you placed a hand on a sensor on the window.There was another model shop nearby,in a passageway opposite New Street station, called 'Kanga Models', which I have been led to believe was owned by Colonel Bowden, designer of some of the ugliest model aircraft ever! There was also 'Model Mecca' on Witton Lane,Witton, and a sports shop on Soho Road Handsworth also sold modelling kit.There was another shop in Great Barr which sold model equipment from their upstairs floor. Jim davis had a big shop of course,and he eventually ended up in a large industrial unit in Dartmouth Street..The shops from around the city were all from the '50's-'60's,all gone now of course.....................Mal

[mal brewer]

I lived in Torquay in my very much younger years ( pre-teens ) and I was very much air-minded even back then. I remember my Dad starting to build a ( c/l ) Veron Wyvern, which was never completed. However ,I do remember two model shops, one was half-way down Union Street, the other was also in Union Street,but a little way out of the town centre.I seem to recall in was near to a church or chapel.I do recall the shop in union street,( the one in the town centre ) had a Veron Mig-15, or was it a LA-17 with the 'IMP' propulsion unit,which we were try to fathom out what it was.This would have been in the early '50's, does anybody know them or of them, obviously it is highly unlikely they still exist as model shops.............Mal

[Bob Cotsford]

While in and around Birmingham how have we missed Bob's Models, Jim Davis Models and my then local, Shirley Models run by Jim Knox(?) then later Mick Forbes. A later addition was Kings Heath Models in, you guessed it, Kings Heath and even later Birmingham Models in Acocks Green.

[David perry 1]

I remember Bobs and Jim D. Good shops.

One i only ever visited once and i bought a lovely jodel on impulse, was Apple models in liverpool. Not in liverpool but close enough.

Cant remember now...

[mal brewer]

Posted by Bob Cotsford on 28/06/2020 23:13:52:

While in and around Birmingham how have we missed Bob's Models, Jim Davis Models and my then local, Shirley Models run by Jim Knox(?) then later Mick Forbes. A later addition was Kings Heath Models in, you guessed it, Kings Heath and even later Birmingham Models in Acocks Green.

I did mention Jim Davis in Stockland green, as I said he later moved to a big unit in Dartmouth Street,I forgot about Bob's models, but what about Chick ( ? ) doughty ?. There were too many model shops in Birmingham in the '50's and '60's to recall easily.Never went to Shirley models,or even knew of them.I remember a lot of Birmingham flyers,Ray Monks (f/f ), the Hewitt bros (c/l stunt ) Mac Grimmett ( c/l combat ) Dave 'Tubby' Day ( r/c scale and aerobatics ) and many more.....................Mal.

[Dwain Dibley.]

My first ever model shop was Dunns in Cradley Heath, Lower high Street.

The guy was a real Gent, always wore a Dickie Bow and a wastecoat. sold me my first engine (I was 15) and my first radio, which was a macgregor 2 channel. I still have both items, and in their boxes.

D.D.

[Richard Clark 2]

When I was young in the 1960'a I shopped at 'Sports' of Totton (which then had a population of about 10,000) near Southampton. Sports sold almost everything model planes though it was a 'general' sports shop too. In addition there were two other Totton shops that had small model plane sections.

'Jetex' had their factory in Totton. Its owners also owned Frog, but that was somewhere else.

[leccyflyer]

When I started in the hobby my main model shop was Forsters in Wigan, opposite the market. A small but very well stocked model shop fairly typical of the 70's. Tony's Models in Pemberton was another shop that I used occasionally-at the time I felt it catered more to the radio flyer and I was still dabbling in free flight and control line My radio days started with a trip to The Manchester Model Shop in Deansgate, where I got my first radio model and Roland Scott;s in Walkden with the infamous Gem 1+1 radio set.. I vaguely recall a rare visit to Roy Lever's shop in Bolton, though that might have come later. Stan Catchpole's Model World in Hope Street in Liverpool was a big shop, and I did make a few special trips there, but by the time I had moved back to Liverpool my hobby was on sabbatical,

Starting back in the hobby in the 1990's I was lucky enough to have the fabulous Steve Webbs Models and Hobbies within walking distance -though I only walked there a couple of times, carrying a big kit up Frodsham Hill never appealed. My travels took me to many model shops around the country over the next 20 years, with notable examples being West London Models, Marionville Models in Edinburgh and Leeds Model Shop.

Nowadays the only real model shop within reach is Scoonies Hobbies in Kirkaldy, which is back to the small, but quite well stocked, traditional model shop, so I'm mostly online and internet shopping these days, plus classified, eBay and FB marketplace.

[FlyinBrian]

Posted by Ray Wood 4 on 28/06/2020 08:59:25:

My memories are of a model shop in Swanley Kent in the 70's run by Roy Norris he had a BN Islander hanging in the shop which had won 1972 class 2 nats with. Unfortunately short lived as Roy was tragically killed flying a DH Chipmunk 😢 still remember him as a really nice guy...

Regards Ray

I remember Roy well, a great guy and a good shop RIP

[FlyinBrian]

Posted by Anthony Scott 2 on 28/06/2020 10:35:11:

The Model Shop, Blenheim St Newcastle on Tyne, next to heaven!

AND Chippies in Sunderland, a nine mile bike ride each way but worth it!

[ken anderson.]

my place of worship during the 1960's was a diy/model shop in Blyth Northumberland called "the handyman's" ...they sold balsa and balsa cement and a few model bits and pieces and odd kits.......the lad who worked there called Alan had a motor bike and sidecar and flew his models at Newcastle town moor......happy memories....as a youngin admiring the Keil Kraft jnr 60 in the window....39/6...impossible to afford... I can still smell the new sawn timber in the shop,and a lot of the grown up's all seemed to buy hardboard for DIY job's.

ken anderson....ne...1.......6d a week pocket money dept.

[Capt Kremen]

Bud Morgan - Castle Arcade Cardiff

Bud, who had only one arm, would lovingly and perfectly pack your precious pocket money kit in a sheet of pristine brown paper. Together in the shop, his extremely polite assistant Chris(?) Williams supplied every manner of model goody.

Down the road (a stretch!), in Swansea, there was a good model shop in one of their arcades too.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

As a young boy in the mid sixties, my "mecca" was Bold & Burrows in St. Albans which was a wonderful emporium combining model related stuff and electronic components extending over several premises close to the town centre. I can't remember how much domestic appliances came in to the picture - wasn't interested in them at the slightest - but they expanded into the premises of a former department store and the model department took over the top floor with all manner of household goods over the lower floors - and a general tool department in the basement, if memory serves me right. I remember drooling over the wondrous radio controlled section while eking out my pocket money to buy balsa and accessories for free flight and control line models. Unfortunately, I suspect that ambition overtook reality and after a few years the firm folded. In recent years, I've become reacquainted with the chap behind the counter since my earliest memories and he now flies at our club about 15 miles from St. Albans on occasions.

Even in the relatively small city of St. Albans, there were multiple model shops throughout my childhood and into the later years of the 20th century - very different now when they are at least a half hour trip in the car to get to.

Those were the days when a visit to the town centre could provide some interest instead of being the modern sterile mixture of chain outlets, charity shops and estate agents. There were all manner of tool, toy, model, junk and speciality shops in every high street. Even in land-locked Hertfordshire, St. Albans had - next door to B&B - a chandlery, run by an elderly lady of "character" who would have given Norah Batty and Ena Sharples a serious run for their money!

Edited By Martin Harris on 29/06/2020 12:58:44

[leccyflyer]

A while back I came across an old shopping list, which must be from the early 1970's - possibly 1973 - for Tony;s Models in Pemberton, referred to earlier. Looks like a trip to buy a Mercury Monarch control line kit and some bits, so maybe a birthday trip.

It was Forshaws in Wigan too, not Forster - that was the name of my physics teacher!

[Stephen Rawsthorne 1]

Posted by leccyflyer on 29/06/2020 13:03:25:

A while back I came across an old shopping list, which must be from the early 1970's - possibly 1973 - for Tony;s Models in Pemberton, referred to earlier. Looks like a trip to buy a Mercury Monarch control line kit and some bits, so maybe a birthday trip.

It was Forshaws in Wigan too, not Forster - that was the name of my physics teacher!

Hi,

I thought the shop in Pemberton was Dave Claytons, it was above the news agents, is that the same shop?

[mal brewer]

Posted by ken anderson. on 29/06/2020 09:21:48:

my place of worship during the 1960's was a diy/model shop in Blyth Northumberland called "the handyman's" ...they sold balsa and balsa cement and a few model bits and pieces and odd kits.......the lad who worked there called Alan had a motor bike and sidecar and flew his models at Newcastle town moor......happy memories....as a youngin admiring the Keil Kraft jnr 60 in the window....39/6...impossible to afford... I can still smell the new sawn timber in the shop,and a lot of the grown up's all seemed to buy hardboard for DIY job's.

ken anderson....ne...1.......6d a week pocket money dept.

Bit out on your prices there Ken, a Keil Kraft Junior 60 is listed at 64/5 ( about £3-22 ) in December 1963, a Super 60 was 107 /- ( £5.35 ).............................Mal

[ken anderson.]

ok Mal....long time ago....like the thread title say's..."does anyone remember...."....just show's ...I don't...

ken anderson...ne...1...memory dept.

[GONZO]

Amazingly only one mention of London shops. My first memories are of a shop(could have been Model Aircraft Supplies) in the Old Kent/New Kent road area in the early fifties. I would have been still at infants school when out with my father we passed this shop with the noise of a running model engine coming from the interior, I dragged him in. It was his fault for having taken me one Sunday morning, a year or two earlier, to watch RTP hydroplane boats at Ruskin Park. A pause until I was about 7/8 yrs old in the mid fifties when my best friend, David Jenkins and I, discovered a fishing tackle shop that also sold KK flying scale models. The shop was just round the corner from our junior school, Michael Faraday Junior school Walworth London SE17, and we would spend lunch times and after school peering in the window planning our next purchase as we worked our way through the range. The success rate was, to say the least poor. Just after starting secondary school, Borough Beaufoy technical school Black Prince road London I discovered a model shop in Peckham where I purchased my very first engine a Frog 349 RC marine in 1960. In 1964 I started work for the GPO (telephones) at a headquarters branch in Islington and soon after discovered HJN's. I had also discovered/rediscovered Model Aircraft Supplies, now in Camberwell road. A move to Layer De La Haye, just South of Colchester, in early '73 resulted in me using Saturn Models Colchester(my first RC trainer the 'Jolly Roger' came from here) and Galaxy Models Ipswich(second trainer the 'Escort' ). For some odd reason I never used Bowmans Models Ipswich. Saturn Models folded and was subsequently replaced by Colchester Models. Moved to Ipswich in 1985 and I could walk to Galaxy models. 1999 saw me move to Amblecote in the West Midlands, but by now much was going telephone/online ordering. With my final move to Abergele in North Wales my nearest model shop is Steve Webs 42 miles away. So it's online and/or overseas.

Edited By GONZO on 29/06/2020 16:27:01

Edited By GONZO on 29/06/2020 16:28:32

[SR 71]

I have just got hold of a Mercury Crusader plan and have oedered the wood from Slec, its my next build, won a few comps with one of these in the 1960s. I can find me a llittle patch of round to fly,and i dont need all the dam regs to do so. Nostalgia

[Edgeflyer]

We had one of these. Coupled flaps? Seemed huge back in the day. 0.35 engine I think.

Where will you fly it without Joe Public annoying you?