Arriving in Aachen mid-afternoon, I idly typed "Model shops Aachen" into Google, and it pointed me at Modell Center Hünerbein. According to the map, a 20-minute walk would get me there before they closed, with the benefit of a chance to see the old city, and the main shopping area.
Off I strode, not really knowing what I'd find, but when I arrived, the frontage was huge!
Looking in the windows, it was pretty obvious that the range was pretty comprehensive, and with only half an hour to look around, I dived in.
This place is vast! With the possible exception of HobbyCo in Sydney, this is the largest model shop I have ever visited. Well over half the shop is given over to railways of all scales from Z to G. Racks and racks of second-hand, all nicely displayed.
There was even a solitary OO item!
One surprise was the large selection of road vehicles on offer. We do see these in the UK, but not in the quantity here, plus the huge range of plastic and laser-cut buildings.
Of course, there is also a big selection of plastic kits, radio control and modelling materials.
Chatting online with friends, some know of this place, and had left money for models in the past. Now, one feature of this trip was that I carried everything in a rucksack, so I simply couldn't buy very much, as I couldn't carry it. But, the law is that when in a model shop, you must buy something.
Which is why I grabbed their last pot of Humbrol 144 - a very useful colour all but extinct in the UK as a start. Then a little metal VW van, well I was in Germany. And finally, one of those buys you make because you'll regret it if you don't, a festive VW. Don't ask me how much this cost, I just knew I loved it a lot, and would certainly remember my trip to the shop!
Check out the Modell Center Hünerbein website. And if you are in Aachen, pay it a visit!
4 comments:
Consumed with curiosity as to what colour Humbrol 144 is, I popped into our local car accessories shop, which stocks Humbrol paint (as well as the best selection of toy and model tractors I've seen) and...there, half way up the sloping rack, was a rather rusty tin of it.
Intermediate between what, I wonder? Early and late, lighter and darker? Whatever, the tin is now in my garage...
No idea. But it's a good match for jeans on little figures.
I hadn't thought of that! I have a couple of sprues of the unpainted, seated Preiser figures that I use to populate 009 coaches as well as H0 standard gauge ones...I suppose that's one less excuse for not getting around to painting them 🙄
Since you didn't really get much chance to look round this model shop, I was half-expecting your blog post to finish with a quote from a dystopian "Arnie" film: "I'll be back!"
(Cue some future articles on making the most of Kibri or Faller HO model train stations - and Roco HO Düwag articulated trams. Meanwhile, I don't know if they still make those double ended tram-trains - but I suspect they could easily pass for LRVs.)
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