Jump to content

ClareWentzel

Moderator-at-large
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,038

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    5

 Content Type 

Posts posted by ClareWentzel

  7. What was your first model store like?

    in General Modeling

    Posted

    Hagenbring's Department Store in Arlington Heights, IL, had a toy department down in the basement space, and they had a great Revell salesman who kept them stocked with new box scale kits in the '50s. I remember desperately trying to raise the 98 cents plus 3 cents sales tax to buy the new Revell Boeing B-52A Stratofortress because I loved the box art. I could also buy 10 cent bottles of Pactra paints in the small square bottles there--red, yellow, blue, white, black, and silver (all gloss, they worked, too). T

    Ed, was the Revell kit one of the four box scale kits that had plastic stands that swivelled 360 degrees? I had all four of them mounted to the wall of my bed room.

  16. What was your first model store like?

    in General Modeling

    Posted

    Over 60 years ago, I went to the local five & dime store in Constantine to find lots of Aurora kits. Later, I got into flying models and stopped building plastic models for a while. After I got married and moved to Detroit, I got back into plastic. I found the most fantastic plastic model hobby shop that I had ever seen - Wings. He had imported kits from England, Germany and Japan!! Shortly after, Jerry Campbell started Squadron Shop on John R. I passed by there 2 or 3 times a week on my way home from work and my collection soared.

     

    Now, my only LHS is Hobby Town. I must say that the people there are great. They will get anything for me that their distributors have - and fast. Since they also have all the paints etc to keep my hobby going, I use them whenever I can.

  23. In Memoriam: Jerry Campbell, Squadron/MMD founder

    in General Modeling

    Posted

    Thanks for posting this Michael. I too had noted Judys note. It is a real shame but it appeared that he didn't suffer. I have known Jerry for many years. The original Squadron Shop on John R in Detroit (actually Hazel Park but most people wouldn't recognize it) was a stop on my way home from work most days of the week. Jerry changed what a plastic model hobby shop would look like. We had imported kits available, for in many cases, the first time. We soon found special colors of paints - I really loved the FHQ brand and we saw decals, other than the ones that came with kits. When Jerry moved into mail order, he did it in a big way and soon all of these goodies became available to everyone. As far as I am concerned, he was one of the true pioneers of our hobby. RIP Jerry.

  24. Grandson Visit

    in General Modeling

    Posted

    Do you recommend this kit for a soon to be 11 year old? It is one of the ones I'd like to buy for my son's birthday in August.

    I would with the caveat that he should have some building experience plus you will be helping him. The gun is made out of normal plastic but the body, head and limbs seem to be made out of a vinyl type material. Check the fit of these parts before painting. We didn't and the fit of some of them was problematic. Also, We painted them with a coat of Tamiya primer and then Model Masters enamels. The paint would not dry and if anything, it got stickier at time went by. He had to remove the paint and then repaint the parts with an acrylic paint. This seemed to work. Enjoy.

  25. Grandson Visit

    in General Modeling

    Posted

    My 17 year old grandson has been visiting this last week. He has been interested in building models for a while so we gave him a Guardians of the Galaxy kit for Christmas. He brought it along. The photo below shows the final result. I showed him how to do some of the things but virtually all of the work was his. The kit wasn't easy. We found out that some paints would not dry on the material that made up the model and the fit of many parts could have been better but he and the family were pleased with the final result. He learned how to air brush and how to dry brush plus patience. It was a good week.

     

    Rocket_Raccoon.jpg

×
×
  • Create New...