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Author Topic: The sad decline of the model shop  (Read 79417 times)

bj

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Re: Another model shop to close.
« Reply #325 on: December 21, 2017, 05:21:22 pm »

Oliver Carley was on Broadway opposite the cinema when I haunted it in the mid 1960s.


He opened it in Lincoln Rd using his disability payout as I recall. It was only a short walk from school (now under the foundations of the John Lewis store)
Which cinema in Broadway? The Odeon (NOW called the Broadway) or the original Broadway which was opposite what is now the Tesco Metro store. Orton Models is now under the foundations of Wilkinsons. We will discount the Embassy which was a theatre cum cinema
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mrlownotes

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Re: Another model shop to close.
« Reply #326 on: December 21, 2017, 05:44:05 pm »

Oliver was opposite what was Sheltons dept store. Now also gone.
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Neil

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MORECAMBE MODEL SHOP
« Reply #327 on: April 24, 2018, 09:48:52 pm »


some months ago it was reported that the model shop at Skirton, Lancaster had closed with the retirement of it's owner.


someone told us that possible staff were working on the opening of a model shop in Morecambe to "replace" the Lancaster shop...............does anyone know whether this happened, and if so, where in Morecambe and what's its trading name please.


thanks.
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Capt Podge

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Re: MORECAMBE MODEL SHOP
« Reply #328 on: April 24, 2018, 10:06:46 pm »

Hi Neil, a google search revealed a few possible : Could this be the one ? http://www.carnforthmodels.co.uk/

Regards,

Ray.
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Neil

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Re: MORECAMBE MODEL SHOP
« Reply #329 on: April 24, 2018, 10:44:39 pm »


Thanks Ray...........I've also googled model shops and most are trains or plastics in Morecambe.........the one in carnforth has been there a few years now.......but thanks for trying.


there was a member on here who told us about the two guys starting up and said he would let us know when it was up and running but that was a good while ago now.
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Martin (Admin)

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #330 on: June 01, 2018, 08:07:56 pm »

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Bob K

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #331 on: June 01, 2018, 10:24:32 pm »

An excellent and informative video.  Kinda says it all doesn't it?

Well I regularly buy at my local model shop in Windsor.  It is so handy when I run out of things and don't want to twiddle my thumbs for nearly a week waiting for an internet order to arrive.  I often jokingly ask if I can get a season ticket, I seem to be in there up to three times a week.

The proprietors take a genuine interest in what I am building, and earlier this week asked for photos.  This evening I emailed them three.  Just got a reply they have found my Agincourt thread on Mayhem, and will be spending this evening reading through it "while SWMBO watches TV".

If you are lucky enough to have a good local model shop, then support it, otherwise it may go the way of our unique hardware store that closed after Christmas.  A real pain.  I was in there once a week too.  So handy.
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tigertiger

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #332 on: June 02, 2018, 02:11:24 am »

Good video, great shop. I did a bit of Google, and there are at least 10 model shops in Helsinki, lucky people; perhaps the long winter nights have something to do with it. The larger model shops in Helsinki, including the one in the video, also have a website and online shop, which is a key to survival.
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surfer71

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #333 on: June 13, 2018, 10:48:51 pm »

 :-))  Love that video..
Sadly it's true they are dropping like flies..


Solihull Model Shop was my window I looked though and couldn't afford anything until ONE DAY!


My Dad and I went and got a Glider kit.. DOPE!!! hmmm anyway did I build it .. no !! my dad did? I just looked on at all the pins from my mothers sewing box stabbed and jammed into places I didn't know exsisted while things set!! glue wise!! that smell!!!


anyway my mother looking very despondant at her sewing box now being used in areas she just didn't understand as a woman..... a glider was produced!!!!!!!


To the park we went where... after much excitement !!! it crashed


never did get it to fly well so it got binned!!


alas Solihull models you failed us!! So RC Cars was next on my list and off we went with a Kyosho Scorpion which I have today! along with an RC 10 


Lucky Portsmouth has some model shops as the old boys and their boats still make things!! real things!! so for now.. the demand for a shop is real!! long live the shop :-)
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Neil

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #334 on: June 20, 2018, 11:54:06 pm »


talking of the decline of model boat shops, I read tonight that a new model boat shop has just opened up in Fleetwood...……


go and have a look tomorrow and check it out.


https://fleetwoodmypbc.org.uk/
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tigertiger

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #335 on: June 21, 2018, 01:46:57 am »

Good to see a new model shop opening, I wish them all the best.


In fact it is nice to see any new shop opening these days, a reversal of the general demise of the High Street is always welcome.
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roycv

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #336 on: June 21, 2018, 09:32:07 am »

Hi all, I remember back in the late 1940's that there were no model shops but I did buy plans from a shop (in NW London, Chalk Farm area) which seemd to sell everything.  There was no advice as such, like 'don't do it' I built my first model boat about 20 inches loa from 1/16th balsa and powered by a recovered Mighty Midget motor and a 4.5 volt flat battery.  Needless to say it was an undramatic start!  Then I remember making my own design 'airboats', which were cheap and the same motor was transferred.
The first model shop I remember was Ripmax and they were very helpful but I could not afford the outlay of a model boat kit from my pocket money, which was also financing Meccano (which they sold) as well.
My first kits were rubber powered model aircraft at around 2/- (10p), and I built many of them.  This was not a model shop just had a side line in these kits.  Model boat kits were mainly 10+ times that.  I only recently identified the Jetex powered model boat I made as coming from Adamcraft.  That went very well but anything more than a £1 was not allowed by my parents.
So in reality over the years I have never been a big spender in model shops.  I remember buying some Feltra (Gamages) and Veron kits when I could finance them from my own income but really I would rather have had the plans and bought the wood.  Kit contents then were mainly just a lot of wood!  I had to buy prop shafts and motors etc, but not many.
My biggest interest was the Model Maker magazine which I started buying in 1954.  Apart from a friend who also built Keilcraft and Skyleada kits we were loners.  The 'grown ups' did not want to know us!

 The most money I ever spent in one go was a Fleet (non-proportional) RC set and that really worked hard for me in several boats and it was the first RC item I had bought that really worked!
I did do some kit reviews but from my background I insisted that the model must be assembled only from the kit, with the usual caveats, glue, paint.  There are some very good kits out there and some less so.
I agree it is nice to go and chat with someone in a model shop but I suspect that with forums like this one and ebay the writing is on the wall for model shops.  The get togethers are now in the many model exhibitions and as we at St. Albans found you have to diversify across the spectrum and of course it is possible to use common components.
I have been using some tiny 10 amp esc's in my small boats and they cost £3.99 each and work great, no pause between fwd. and rev.  Not sure what the application was but work for me.
If you do the finance side and give the model shop owner a modest income of £25K with his shop 'out goings' rent, advertising and profit margins he has to have a turnover of at least £150K. p.a.  You can't do that just selling model boats!  You can work out the rest.  I suggest his best bet is highly disposable items like helicopters?
We are doing very well with a few on-line UK traders who have moved with the times and also have been giving excellent customer service and I always use them first if they have what I want.

A close family member once in the Motor industry told me he would like to run a franchise selling cars and here he named several motor car manufacturers, I asked why as I knew he liked the high end cars.  He said they go wrong a lot and there is loads of money to be made in the waranty and repair work.
I ocassionally buy ebay failures, sometimes local donated model boats and get them working properly, so I do my own warranty work!
Kind regards and as usual I have gone on a bit too long,
Roy


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jaymac

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #337 on: June 21, 2018, 11:42:26 am »

Hi all, I remember back in the late 1940's that there were no model shops


Well pretty sure we did in Edinburgh more sure some  keil kraft kits were 1 and 6 pence rubber powered Ha! my spitfire flew well but I had to go faster  extra rubber and extra winds  the first run Wow   alas the second did one wind too many and just as  about to let go she imploded to about  1/3rd of her length   must have made a sound job of the hooks and gluing the formers
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roycv

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #338 on: June 21, 2018, 02:09:02 pm »

Hi Jaymac, thanks for your comment my remarks about no model shops was meant to be about model only shops. 
I never got to H J Nichols and not sure when they started up either.  Apart from Bonds of Euston and Bassett-lowke, all the model supplies I bought were from bicycle and similar shops that also had a counter for models aircraft kits. And balsa cement and dope.

My method of transport was bike and trolley bus, (I used to get sick on diesel buses!) we also had a lot of still damaged buildings and there was more pressure on surviving than hobbies.  But it does also limit the size of any models you make.  My elastic powered aircraft would come apart and travel on my bike to the park but in the main were flown in the street outside.
At the price of model aircraft kits the stock holding was quite affordable.  When Ripmax opened it was a cornucopia of models of all sorts and I visited every Saturday, but I could still not afford 95 % of the goods.
I later reproduced two of the boats I saw in the B.L. window at Holborn, Streamlinia and Sea Jay, this sorted out some of my 'early unrealised yearnings'.
 But I recall before this going into B.L. to buy some stanchions and each one cost about the same as the model aircraft kits I used to buy and I was told rather loftily that they had to come from Switzerland!  No sale there then!  This was early 60's.  I never went back after this, but at those prices how long did they expect to trade?We have had several model shops come and go locally, but they have to cater for the majority and so aircraft and helicopters were the bread and butter, not much jam here!  I may be wrong but model aircraft makers seem to have deeper pockets!
As long as I can buy glues, paints and wood, brass and tubing, propellers, RC and servos plus those lovely people who put pen to drawing board and produce model boat plans I shall be happy.  OOps must not forget batteries etc.
The younger generation do not get the training and skills in dexterity from schools any more which may well be the basic cause of the lack of young modellers.  I think they will regret it in the end.
kind regards Roy



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Subculture

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #339 on: June 21, 2018, 03:32:59 pm »

I'm in my mid forties, so a bit younger than some on here, but old enough to remember when model shops were ubiquitous. I personally think modellers have never had it better in terms of what is available in both quality and price, and have found the internet the perfect medium for purchasing my wares. I can find what I want rather than what a shop has in stock.

It does mean a bit of planning ahead I find, but generally speaking I rarely found what i was looking for in model shops past or present. As primarily a scratchbuilder, I find ebay more relevant than most model shops.
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jaymac

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #340 on: June 21, 2018, 03:47:27 pm »

Hi Roy this was a models only shop tiny but well stocked  I was fortunate as it and parks were within walking distance or trams which   were abundant .Boating no  used to love the big  yachts   down the pond and marvel  at how the old geezers  seemed to steer them no R/c. building them no we did used to fantasise  how easy it would be to break in the boathouse and take one ah wild youth but had the sense to realise where would we keep it  or sail it. Batteries  funny enough I was pretty clued up on batteries and accumulators  (no leccy at home) for our steam radio . Regular trips by tram with the accumulator down to the bicycle shop to get it charged imagine trying that today those were the days
Jay
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Neil

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #341 on: June 21, 2018, 04:19:14 pm »


just been into the shop, and met the two owners...….very knowledgeable about modern electronics, electrics, brushless motors and such, and from the dιcor of the shop, they mean to be here to stay for a while...……...very nice indeed...at the moment they are concentrating on r/c cars, quad copters, a few plastic model kits, electronic gear, tamya paints and things that kids and dads want to play with for Christmas, but were asking me for a little advice about model boaters like,......and so, glues, epoxies, plasticard, timber and separate  sets of radio gear are on the cards...steered them away from boat fittings in plastic packs for the time being and anything that they can get via ebay and the internet for much cheaper prices.
they have spent a lot of dosh on setting up...…...I do hope that they will be here for a good long time...…..it's brightened up Fleetwood already.
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roycv

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #342 on: June 21, 2018, 04:22:01 pm »

Hi, yes the yachts, they are part of early memories at Highgate yachting pond, 10 raters and a few A's, beautiful, never liked the vanes much though, spoilt the appearance I felt.  I went to a lecture many years ago curtesy of the Model Engineering exhibition and a chap gave a talk on turbines where the spinning part was about the size of the old 2 shilling coin, afterwards I asked him if he was the one I remembered from back then and we swapped a few stories.
Well the lake is still there I did hear that a club was proposed then it died.  Clubs make groups of like interested members and groups can be a nucleus of starting the model trade up again.  The other option is for them to bulk buy and get a discount.
I used to do the battery walk for my grandad each Saturday morning, down to the cycle shop where it was swapped for a charged one.
Hi Subculture, you sum up what happens now and as you say there is a wide source of items on the Internet.  And it does mean that kitchen companies can set up and sell a niche product with a huge range of customers.

Well done Sir Tim, I take my hat off to you, what a gift to give everyone!  We must not also forget the free browsers and word processing programmes that forced the automatic supply of cheap if not free s/w.  Microsoft and their ilk would have liked to have charged everyone for everything.

Just a thought but a small donation to Martin on this forum is well worth keeping what we have going.
 
I have got to go and complete some sails I am making!
Bye for now,
Roy


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Subculture

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #343 on: June 21, 2018, 09:33:13 pm »

Never much cared for Highgate ponds, did run there on occasion, but much preferred the pond at Broomfield or at a pinch Friary Park (long since filled in) which was a bit small.

Highgate is a very deep puddle, so if you lost a boat there, slim chance of recovery. They partially drained that pond a few years ago for alterations, and found a Mk3 Cortina in the bottom! It was rumoured to be a vengeful spouse that caught her husband cheating and decided to submerge his set of wheels.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/ford-cortina-found-at-bottom-of-drained-hampstead-heath-pond-10440852.html
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roycv

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #344 on: June 21, 2018, 09:39:44 pm »

Hi subculture, that is weird!  I shall tell my wife lived there when we met.  Our flat was just the other side of the Heath over the railway bridge in Mackeson road.
thanks for that,Roy
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jaymac

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #345 on: June 21, 2018, 10:32:53 pm »

Mines was not a battery Roy or was that a typo  imagine taking this on public transport today :}  and when you think the HT battery was 90 volts
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roycv

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Re: The decline of the model shop
« Reply #346 on: June 22, 2018, 05:22:51 am »

Hi Jaymac, you are right it was just a single cell.  Just enough to warm up the valves. I seem to remember that the cycle shop had the edge on technology back then!  My first radio control set had a 45 volt battery for the rx.

regards Roy
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jaymac

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Re: The sad decline of the model shop
« Reply #347 on: June 22, 2018, 05:39:48 am »

   Our 90V one on the radio was massive  pretty sure they were about 15 bob (but not certain) a time lasted for yonks though lot  of money then Roy
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Peter Fitness

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Re: The sad decline of the model shop
« Reply #348 on: June 23, 2018, 12:20:15 am »

I fondly remember a model shop in Sydney when I was a kid, in the late 40s and early 50s, called Walther and Stevenson. It was an Aladdin's cave of models, almost literally, as the model section was in a basement in George Street, not far from the Capitol Theatre. The toy department was on the ground floor. Even after leaving Sydney at the end of 1953, I would still go to W & S any time we visited that city. Sadly, W & S closed their doors in 1969. Sydney now has Hobbyco, a multi storey shop in the Queen Victoria Building, still a place of pilgrimage for me any time I visit Sydney.

We are fortunate to have a model/toy shop in Lismore, only 10 minutes from where I live but, while it still has quite a good modelling section, its bread and butter is toys, and it carries very little boat related. It was started back in the early 50s by an avid aeromodeller, then handed on to his son, and now run by his daughter-in-law and grandson. The founder and his son have both passed away.

Peter.
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RAAArtyGunner

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Re: The sad decline of the model shop
« Reply #349 on: June 23, 2018, 02:19:11 am »


Yes it was an experience going down the stairs. O0 O0

Hobbyco is on line. :-)) :-))


Sadly don't get down to the big smoke these days.
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Gunna build those other boats one day.
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