Express & Star

Sad decline of model pastime

It used to be an essential part of growing up for any schoolboy. If you reached adulthood without having covered a Spitfire with polystyrene cement or built a boat out of balsa wood, there was something seriously lacking in your education.

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But it seems those days may be passing. For the best part of half a century, Ace Models has been a magnet for youngsters across the Black Country.

Back in the 70s, there could not have been a schoolboy in the region who did not go there to buy track for his train set, Scalextric cars or Airfix kits. But the store, in Dudley's Fountain Arcade, will close its doors for good this year.

Assistant manager Simon Stanley says today's youngsters just aren't interested in model-making, and that model shops across the region are having a similarly tough time.

"There's no trade," he says. "It isn't just us, all the model shops in the West Midlands seem to be having the same problems.

"We don't get the kids in here any more. They're sitting at home with their PlayStations.

"We get kids in here doing their GCSEs, and they don't know anything about scale. We've lost an awful lot of kids."

Specialist retailers seem to be going through a difficult period at the moment, and technology is certainly playing a part.

Last week the Express & Star revealed how Reddingtons Rare Records in Birmingham was to close, with all future sales being done through a website. Owner Dan Reddington predicted the internet would eventually force all the specialist stores out of the high street.

It is a doubly sad time for staff at Ace Models, following the recent death of founder Charles Dixon, at the age of 69.

Charles founded the shop in 1959, along with his older brother Bill. It was initially based in Drayton Street, Wolverhampton, but moved to Dudley in 1968, expanding the range of model railways, boats, cars, aeroplanes and figures.

Bill, aged 73, who along with Charles retired from the business three years ago, said: "We were looking for somewhere where there was not already a model shop, and it also needed to be somewhere in a fairly big area.

"Dudley was where we wanted to be, but it was very difficult to get a shop. The Fountain Arcade had just been refurbished, and we were able to get a shop in there."

The brothers continued to retain a presence in Wolverhampton having various shops, and until recently they had a kiosk in the Mander Centre. In the 1980s the Dudley shop moved to larger premises across the arcade. The spacious new showroom meant Bill and Charles could display large railway layouts, as well as some superb giant model cars costing hundreds of pounds.

In the early days the most popular lines were the wooden kits for making galleons and aircraft, but by the 1980s there was a big increase in sales for plastic kits for planes, cars, boats and tanks.

After the brothers retired three years ago, the shop was taken over by Carl Hodgetts, an award-winning modeller who had worked in the shop for Bill and Charles.

Shortly before his retirement Bill told how he had got to know many regular customers over the years.

"We get people in who I remember from when they were kids, and they bring their grandchildren in now," he said.

But sadly, that seems to be a dwindling number.

"We get hardly anybody in at all," says 48-year-old Mr Stanley, who has worked at Ace Models for nine years. He believes economic factors may also have contributed to the decline in trade.

"Although you might think that Longbridge is nothing to do with us, when you think of all the other companies that used to supply Longbridge, if all those people are out of work, modelling is not a necessity, it's a bit of a luxury," he says.

John Boucker of Pensnett Model Makers' Club agrees that today's children do not seem to be interested in making models.

"The problem is you have got PlayStations and computers, and none of them want to use their hands for skills as we know it," he says.

But Mr Boucker says today's youngsters are missing out on a lot, both in terms of enjoyment, and also educationally.

"There's a lot to be said for actually creating something with your own hands," he says. "I know I have learned a lot more from doing a hobby than I ever did when I was at school, learning from a book. I found it interesting, and did it because I wanted to."

He added that working to a scale sharpens up your mental arithmetic, as well as teaching practical skills.

Mr Boucker says people do still make models, but they are coming into it later in life.

"It's no longer a pocket money hobby," he says. "When I was a kid you would save up your pocket money, but now you're talking about £10 for a kit, and then there's the paint and the glue.

"I think it's a shame that Ace is going, it's been the main shop in the area for as long as I can remember."

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