62 Mach Buster
Eduard 1/48 Bell X-1 by Jared DemesL
ast year I visited
St. Peter Port in
Guernsey and
discovered a model shop
that appeared to have been
stuck in a time warp since
my previous visit 20 years
before. This time I did not
leave it so long between
visits and returned exactly
a year later, and to my
surprise, a lot had changed
in the intervening year.
Now I am sure most of you
are going to expect me to say that
I found the shop boarded up or
converted into a cofee shop.
But far from it – the shop has
gone from strength to strength.
After 35 years in the same
premises, last year they had to
move to a new location just eight
doors further up the street. The
shop now has a far brighter and
more contemporary feel, rather
than the dark wood and crowded
shelves that I remembered, but
there is still a wide range of kitsto choose from, as well as all
the normal paints and tools.
The family who has owned
the shop for those 35 years has
also taken the opportunity to
build and display a selection of
models in all the major scales,
such as a Tiger Tank, a U-Boat,
and a Supermarine Spitire. Now,
when someone who is not familiar
with modelling comes into the
shop they can see what the kit in
the box will look like built and
how big it will be when inished.The other big change
is that one side of the
shop is now devoted to
Lego building bricks.
This might seem a
strange mix, but it is
paying big dividends for
this small model shop.
LEGO is a good
introduction to
modelling, as the larger
sets require you to
follow instructions to
complete them, and
once completed you get that sense
of achievement that many of us
feel after completing a model.
The owners have already had a
number of older children who
originally came in to buy Lego
but have now moved up to buying
their irst model kits. This is
good for both the retailer and
the hobby as it means that they
now have two income streams:
the children with their Legos
who will in time move on to
modelling, and keep on returningas adults for many years to come.
So maybe this is the way ahead
for model shops: diversify your
range to include products that will
bring the youngsters in, and then
show them built models rather
than boxes, so they are inspired
to try and build them as well.
My thanks to The Model Shop,
34 Fountain Street, St Peter Port,
Guernsey for an interesting
morning, and if you are on the
Island for your holidays next year
pop in as it is well worth a visit.David Francis, Editor
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Pacific Coast Models 1/
Focke-Wulf Fw-190A-0/1/2/
(early version) by John Bisset4 • DECEMBER 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
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Scale Aviation Modeller International
December 2018 • Volume 24 • Issue 12