When you only see kits infrequently these days, it’s very difficult to imagine them gaining much traction within the collective consciousness of potential modellers young and old, but when they are drip fed into the imagination within places that people visit regularly, those little products can sub-consciously take hold, turning inquisitive onlookers, into potential enthusiasts.
24th March 2025
If there is one thing that modellers of a certain age will remember about their youth, is that model kits could be bought virtually anywhere. From corner shops, to newsagents, village post offices to the local supermarket, you’d see them wherever you travelled, in all of their tempting splendour. These days, the hunt for plastic kits is a little more longwinded, a search for a model shop being the most obvious course of action if the Interwebz and the click of a computer mouse, are not to your liking.
What a pleasure then this morning, to turn the clock back to those halcyon days of yore, as I discovered a shop that was exactly like those that I loved so much, back in the day.
This weekend (as mentioned yesterday) we’ve spent a few days away with friends in the glorious Peak District. On our way back this morning, we decided to stop off in Buxton, one of the UK’s spa towns that nestles within the National Park’s High Peaks. Filled with all manner of grand buildings that sprung up around the natural spring waters that still flow under the town, it’s more than worth a visit, if only to experience the UK’s highest market town, some 1000ft about sea level. It’s also home to W. Appleyard & Son, tobacconist and purveyor all things fancy goods, souvenirs and kits.
I found the shop by accident. We’d actually stopped in Buxton for breakfast after having to leave our wonderful B&B relatively early. Clear blue skies, sunshine and relatively warm temperatures made wandering around the town a pleasant experience, one made all the more pleasing thanks to the cheese and bacon oatcakes that I consumed soon after arriving.
I say by accident, because that was true. We were actually heading towards the Buxton Opera House when rounding a corning I noticed a Tamiya sign and then kits behind a pleasing glass window. The other side of the door was a second display that was of course filled with all manner of tobacconist’s wares, most of which looked attractive in their own way, but of which I had little interest. Glancing at my wife, who by this point had that look of “here we go again” on her face, I peered through the open door, stepped inside and turned the clock back almost fifty years.
Appleyard’s is a superb shop that just feels older than it is, without looking that way, if you see what I mean. It’s filled with everything you would imagine for the tobacco-smoking enthusiast, as well as toys, souvenirs and those all-important kits, all beautifully displayed, so that your eye is carried around the shelves, each pass revealing more and more to capture the imagination and lighten the wallet.
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The kits themselves are displayed in the aforementioned window, as well as up high on and indeed from, some of the shelves. There are not huge numbers in the shop, but just enough to get the juices flowing and remind you of just how important these shops used to be up and down the country. It felt like I’d slipped on an old and much-loved pair of shoes as I stood in front of the glass counter tops, my only access to the kits being thanks to the wonderful shop assistant who handed each down as I announced with great enthusiasm “I’ll take that weapons set…those figures…oh and that M151”. My wife by this point had simply resigned herself to playing second fiddle to my time of wistful pleasure. Heaven knows what my friends thought…
Having walked into the shop empty handed, I walked out with a little paper bag filled with a few Tamiya kits, some Milliput and a bag of pipe cleaners. With the Legacy Collection Part 3 now embedded within my plans, all are for upcoming dioramas, both World War Two and relatively modern. Part of the thoughts on the latter is that little reissued TOW-armed Mutt, a kit that I built in 1983, not long after its release.
Inspired initially by François Verlinden’s standalone build for the Tamiya catalogue and then his Sgt. York diorama the following year, I built the kit, loved the results and then I think displayed it in a model shop never to see it again. Over the years I’ve always fancied having another go at one, so now I have the chance to do just that. I’m thinking of a REFORGER scene featuring one of these little ‘Jeeps’ but who knows, I may even replicate that Sgt. York diorama that I so loved back in the day.
Seeing a shop like this reminded me of what we are missing and why they used to be so important to kids such as I. When you only see kits infrequently these days, it’s very difficult to imagine them gaining much traction within the collective consciousness of potential modellers young and old, but when they are drip fed into the imagination within places that people visit regularly, those little products can sub-consciously take hold, turning inquisitive onlookers, into potential enthusiasts.
A wonderful weekend then, capped off by some time in a beautiful shop that brought back so many memories. What can be better than that?
See you tomorrow.
W. APPLEYARD & CO.
For further information on this wonderful shop, including address details, please visit their Facebook page at:
SPENCER POLLARD'S KIT BOX 
oh, what a trip down memory lane Spence! ~Wayne
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In the fifties and sixties, the two best places to buy model kits in my hometown were a camera shop and the local hardware store. The hardware store even conducted the first model car contest I had ever seen (my 1960 AMT Ford F-100, painted with AMT candy apple green “rattle can” spray paint, won first place, and I still have the model!).
My, how times have changed!
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My journey in this great hobby of ours started in West Germany as it was known then. At age eleven and have never stopped. The kits were brought from the NAFFI with of course the obligatory pocket money.
moved back to the UK in early 1971 to Aldershot, the home of the British army as it was known, and still is. Our first weekend when my dad had finally settled in to his new assignment we went down town to look at our new surroundings which we would call home for the next seven years. Walking down Aldershot high street I was lagging behind a bit when I noticed the rest of my family had stopped while I caught up
One of my sister’s was standing there pointing discretely to one side toward a ship and as I got closer…boom. Concorde Models. Spencer, a double fronted shop, door in the middle and on either side the shop windows were filled with made up models that took my breath away. That was my port of call for all my modelling needs. Gone now I think.
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Your daily posts are salve for my soul, this one especially.
Scott from Colorado.
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Ooh, we were in Buxton a couple of years ago but we missed Appleyards. Time for a return visit I think (with “long suffering” wife in tow!)
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For a brief , if a little bizarre period a few years ago the GAME chain in the UK ( long shut in Rep of Ireland ) were stocking a modest selection of Airfix !I recall how in the 80s Airfix lamented that computer gaming was killing them, so this certainly seemed ironic .
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