Even though I visited several hobby shops as a kid, I never imagined I would own a hobby shop. I spent a lot of time as a kid in England (60's and 70's) while my dad was in Viet Nam and when we settled there. My dad had been stationed at Burtonwood AFB in England in the 50's where he met my mother. Near my grandparents house my dad had discovered a model shop in Garston called John's models (I think it was on Jackson st.). We went back to Liverpool in 1967-1969 while he was in Viet Nam and before he left he introduced me and my brother to the wonderful world of John's models. It was a true model shop and stocked mostly Airfix and Frog models along with the full line of Humbrol paints. Over that two years I went to John's models almost every Saturday morning. We bought lots of 1/72 scale Airfix soldiers. I seemed to buy the same models more than once LOL. I remember having the beagle airplane, HMS Hood, Spitfires, Hurricanes, BF-109's and every Nasa spacecraft that was launched. Johns Models also sold a lot of Corgi diescasts. I had Captain Scarlet cars, Chitty Chitty bang bang and a ton of others. We would build the models and then stuff them with magnesium ribbon and I hate to say destroy them. I would also go to a store in down town Liverpool called Hobbies (imagine that). Hobbies, stocked a complete line of stuff including a lot of American imports. I've been back to Garston Liverpool and there is no sign of Johns Models.

My dad came back from Viet Nam and we moved to Hoechst Germany at McNair kaserne for a couple of years. While there I built some more models and won Comet rubber powered kit at the local community center - but I never built it, at least not that I can remember.

My dad went back to Viet Nam and we bought a house in Wigan England where my parents eventually retired. Under the Christmas tree in 73 I found a Sterling Baby Ringmaster, Sterling Ringmaster Junior and a Guillows P-40. Along with the kits I received a Testor's McCoy .049, Fox .15 and a Cox Medallion .09. During this time my dad introduced me to Catchpoles on Bold St (down town Liverpool). This was an awesome store in its day (now gone). I joined the Navy and returned to the States - my dad gave all of my models away LOL.

While stationed at NAS Memphis we had a nice hobby shop on base. One Friday I bought a Cox Centurion (1979) trainer system. By the end of the day on Saturday it had found a tree to attack. I stripped the radio system and engine and kept them for years, but eventually threw them away. I tried control line again while stationed in Rota Spain. The Navy Exchange had some cox airplanes and so I bought one. I lived on the beach and after the engine died and it buried it into the sand - I discovered sand and engines don't mix LOL.

My dad took me to a lot of trains stores in Liverpool as a kid, but my interests were pointed more towards aviation.

While I like almost any kind of aviation modeling, I have a passion for Ringmasters and 1/2A engines.

Bill
ihobbycentralrc.com
bamhobbies.com