Priest- these guys got things pretty straight as far as clubs - I’ve been trying to get over to a couple of Santa Rosa’s meets but can’t seem to make dates line up - they put on a good show - South of SF seems like they are pretty active as well and I’ve been to a couple good shows in years past over in sac. for a good semi local LHS, venture into the heart of california liberalism and try berkely ace hardware’s basement - a mecca of wall to wall hard to find, rare and brand new kits and, since Sann antonio went down, Rob has been pushing hard for them to expand there already great stock of paints, aftermarket goodies and tools. - just try to look the other way as a bunch of choo choo geeks mull over their “Apparently”- ( i know nothing of trains) super well stocked train department. I’m always shooting down to the city for this or that - we should do a little FSM forum get together. not many airplane types left around here it seems… and way to many train nuts! (no offense - but do those dudes seem a little… off!? ) Oh and by the way - hello all - seems like a bunch of new faces - my modeliing goes in surges of heavy involvement and it’s been awhile…
Another store you might want to check out is Yannis Hobbies on 4846 El Camino Real in Los Altos. My wife and I checked out the store when he was just starting up (we were in the area for a Jimmy Buffet concert [8D]). He had a nice selection of kits and a really great variety of good and hard to find reference books. [:)]
or 2) the Silicon Valley Modellers http://www.svsm.org/ They meet next Friday (3rd Friday)
Both are a fine group of people with alot of crossover in membership and a short trip for you in Castro Valley. Its harder for me to get there as its 40 miles one way through Friday night traffic, especially now with two puppies to housebreak.
We meet on the Third Friday of each month at the Milpitas library at about 6:30 PM. We are a friendly bunch with lots of military models brought in each month.
I just rememberd[banghead] there’s one in Berkeley, in the basement of an Ace Hardware, on University ave, that’s devoted almost exclusivly to model’s, their well stocked and there’s a whole isle that’s all PE, and Resin. Just get off of the Freeway at University ave and go to the end, it’s on the left side of the road[8D][:)]
Air Master - from what I understand, the owner of San Antonio Hobbies had a massive heart attack and survived. The medical costs were outstanding and cost them the business. I don’t know if it was true or not, but there was a rumor that the staff wanted to purchase the store, but the family wouldn’t go along with. It was a great modelling resource.
As i live in San Francisco its hard for me to get down to D&J except when work detours me in that direction. Luckily, its on my route and I can find somewhere nearby to eat justifying the detour [:D]
I just attended my first meeting with the Fremont Hornets tonight. Seems like a great bunch of folks who all share the passion. They are also having a contest that will be open to the public which will be on Oct 13th.
I used to live 3 blocks from San Antonio Hobby and that place was Model Wonderland to me. I had even got to know a few staff on first name basis there. I knew I could always count on the item I needed to be in stock and never had to special order anything. I wish that they had branched out to sell over the internet but never did yet they did have a web site.
I first visited the shop in 1976. I bought a 1/72 scale PBY Catalina and it was love at first sight. It would be over 10 year later in 1989 I would walk through their doors again and felt like I had revived a lost love with an old flame. I bought all my kits and supplies there from then on. I was a regular there. Bought my first airbrush there. The service was top notch, the selection was first class and the experience memorable beyond compare. Those guys were truely Modelers helping Modelers.
Hobbytown USA is Vacaville. CA. They’d just opened and didn’t have a large selection things, but promised to improve selection. Finally, something between ‘Frisco’ and Sacto for modelers.
Viking Hobbies and Riverside Hobbies in Sacramento are both pretty good stores for plastic models. Riverside has had a better selection of aircraft lately, and you can often find older kits there because they buy collections. Viking tends to have more armor and gaming stuff lately. I go to the Hobbytown in Vacaville occaissionally, it’s not a bad store either. As if I needed to buy any more kits!
I had worked at SFO for 20 years and had gotten to know some of the Airport Duty Managers. Although there is a full time staff in charge of the art and displays one of the Duty Managers was a model builder, ships and scratch built from wood. After my agency got split and I stayed behind and didn’t go to DHS, CBP I rarely see the displays at the airport anymore.
How many of the SF Bay area people remember the art displays in the Emmeryville flats during the 1980’s? Especially when there were some airplane models placed upon the pilings? Most were destroyed by that hurricane in the mid 1980’s. I liked to look at them while I was stuck in the traffic on Rt. 80 heading for the Bay Bridge and work. At the time I lived in San Pablo.
That airport, in particular F, has great exhibit curating, though unfortunately United is all behind security now. I think I am wrong about the Nut Tree models, they are more like 1:10 maybe. I’ve worked there (SFIA) as a design consultant for the last 10 years and know some DM’s, but not that one. Nice people.
I remember Emeryvilles junk sculpture well. I’ve tried for a long time to find any photos, but no success. Someone put together biplanes, triplanes(?) our of old boxes.
Bondoman
TLP sorry if we’ve hijacked your string, but this definitely is memory lane. And I’m going over to Ace in Berzerkley on Wednesday afternoon.
If all goes according to plan, we’re going to spend the day in Berkeley this Saturday and will hit up the Hobby Store at Ace Hardware in Berkeley. Looking forward to checking it out. [:)]
The Nut tree models were not all the same scale. The Glamorous Glennis Mustang might have been near 1/10, but the Curtiss Condor, Sikorsky flying boat and the Zeppelin were of smaller scale. I’m not sure having them all the same scale was important to Ed Powers, he never mentioned that when we talked about them. I remember him saying that Eddie Chavez felt like all of them had something “wrong” with them. Typical modeler, right?
espins1 - let me know wat you think - I’ve often touted Ace’s selection on this forum but never heard anyone else’s opinion…
I very much remember the sculptures in emeryville - as a kid I got to go down to the big city with my dad everynow and agian on deliveries and always new we were close when i spotted snoopy and the red Baron. It also meant if i begged hard enough we could roll by kit and Kaboodle when he was on solano… pick up another kit that I would never finish because it was’nt “perfect” oh well… things have’nt changed much except I’ve actually been satisfied with a couple!
its ok, memory lane has taught me about the spot in berkely. I think im gonna check it out this weekend. Kinda funny my memory lane has a lot of underground in berkely, underground raves, head shops, record stores…and now a model shop! I dont think anything good is actually above ground in that town. I would love to hear about the selection of the shop before I go, I have yet to hear your touting, what have you to say about said shop