Shop displays project

Photo by Jan de Jager

Every year, our IPMS-NL chapter (regio Zuid-Holland) tries to present an interesting club table at the IPMS-NL national convention, called Euro Scale Modeling. In 2016, I saw newly designed but sixties-styled shop displays on Ebay, just like Revell and Monogram made in the sixties. I moved that idea to the current time: what would shop displays look like if manufacturers had continued making them for their new releases? It took seven years, until 2023, before the project was ready. I did not count the hours involved. It turned out to be a in interesting challenge to design many different displays for different models. Inspiration came almost at random, and not all concepts 'worked'. But often they looked better than expected, once a model was placed on the display. By 2023 I had designed 67 shop displays - time to show them to the world. For space and cost reasons, I made a selection of 33 displays, that used models of 18 club members. These displays are shown below, just as they were shown at the 2023 Euro Scale Modeling. Not shown are the many design iterations and prototypes, otherwise the page would be many times longer.

Number 1: Academy 1/72 Komet, model built by myself (build report) This was the first shop display I came up with, way back in 2016. I wanted the Komet to fly right through a formation of US bombers, with a rocket engine smoke trail. That was easy, some cotton wool glued to a spring steel rod. For the background I selected the great 'Wie ein Floh - aber oho!' emblem, a large Academy logo, and 'Geheime Kommandosache', all placed on a camouflage pattern. Maybe to visually support the climb angle of the Komet, I cut off the card at an angle. I had it printed at a copy shop, that gave me a quality I could not achieve at home. I will admit I was very pleasantly surprised about the result. When I presented it at the club and explained the idea, most members thought I had brought a real shop display as an example of the idea. That told me that the quality of the design and execution was good enough to fool most people. Not that fooling people is the purpose, the purpose is showing an interesting alternative way to display scale models.

Number 2: Revell 1/72 F-16 (H-222), model built by myself (build report) I had never built the Revell F-16 from 1976, but this kit and its box are iconic, I think. It was sold in the millions, so almost every modeler born before say 1970 knows it. I decided to copy the circular compass swinging base, as shown on the right side of the box, and copy all of the left side of the box in the card. Laboriously I determined all fonts (thanks Whatthefont), and rearranged the elements. I was sold on the theme after building this one. I could just see this in a 1976 shop window, it looked so natural. I quickly started building the model too.

Number 3: Revell 1/72 F-16 (H-222), model built by myself (build report) When I added the photo of the gray F-16 with all the weapons to the card of the above display, I realized I could reverse the shop display design. Put the red-white-blue F-16 on the card, and make a rectangular base to display the grey-grey F-16 and all it weapons. It was quickly designed since I already had most artwork elements. I built the weapons of the H-222 kit straight away, mounted them on steel pins, and arranged them exactly like on the box. I hope many modelers will understand the idea.

Number 4: Artiplast 1/48 Macchi MC72, model built by Leo Ripken This was the first display for a club member's model. Although I wanted to create modern shop displays, I had made a bit of a false start with two 1976 displays. Maybe a few more 'older' ones wouldn't hurt? In this case, inspiration came at a club meeting, where Leo Ripken showed his recently finished Smer 1/48 Macchi MC72. It's an Artiplast kit originally, from the sixties, and that's what I used for the display markings. I liked the logo (redrawn), used Italian texts and went for 'artistic' water. The result is not spectacular, but the color combination of green, blue and red is great, I think. And it's the first display for a club member's model.

Number 5: 1/72 BAT FK26, model scratch built by Rob Hamann Much more mission creep: I designed a single 'thirties' shop display, from a time when only Penguin models existed. I wanted an old-style drawing, period lettering, and a felt base for the model. To make it different, I went for a playboard-style folding panel, with a small pedestal under it. Conclusion

Number 6: Verlinden 1/72 Mules, models built by myself (build report) One of my favorite resin models is the US Navy 'Mule' deck tractor by Verlinden. To me it seemed logical that a company like Verlinden would also produce shop displays to promote their latest kits in shops. As a background I used the camouflage pattern as used on Verlinden packaging, scanned from the back side of a catalog. I also found the right fonts, and designed a tilted panel with some kind of platform attached, suggesting something aircraft carrier-like. After printing and building the first version, I noted some problems, and enlarged the design a bit. It's very different from the others, but still nice, I think.

Number 7: Hawk 1/32 H-43B (1962), model built by myself (build report) Club member Leo Ripken had bought this very old model at a car boot sale, but had doubts about building it. I saw a great display opportunity because of the intermeshing rotors, powered by a primitive electric motor. If the model would be motorized, the strange rotor meshing could be a viewing magnet. I bought the model from Leo, and started building. For the display, I could only use a base, because of the diameter of the turning rotors. For the sides of the base, I copied elements of the box. For the top side I used rectangular concrete slabs with tar stripes, reused from my F-84F project. I drew a helicopter 'H-circle' on top of the artwork. Lastly, I made a tiny holder to separately display the original electric motor included in the kit. It was missing in the box I bought, but Paolo 'loupgarou' kindly donated one, many thanks again! The last element of the display was kindly provided by club member Jan de Jager: he made a Raspberry Pi controller, that made the rotors start and stop every 8 seconds. It worked very well, and gave the viewer an opportunity to study the rotor mechanism at rest. Simple but nice colors was my judgement. And indeed, the intermeshing rotors made modelers study the mechanism for minutes :-)

Number 8: Hasegawa 1/72 MiG 23S (1977), model built by myself (build report) I was very weary of designing shop displays that all had a rectangular base and a rectangular panel, and tried all kinds of shapes. When thinking of a wedge, there was no way to put a model on it. Instead the model could be in flying attitude. I decided to use the old Hasegawa 1/72 MiG-23, and found inspiration in an old Hasegawa catalog for the text, fonts and colors. The model got a receptacle for a 1 mm spring steel wire, and after a lot of bending and twisting, the MiG model hung in the perfect spot. Very different, but really nice I think.

Number 9: MPC 1/72 Space 1999 Eagle, model built by Ted Spinders With eight aircraft models, it was high time to take another category of models. Club member Ted Spinders brought his Space 1999 Eagle to a club meeting. I looked at some footage of the TV-series, and noted that the launch and land platform was really colorful. I combined various elements of the launch and land platforms in the TV-series. They are red and cross-shaped, outlined with white lights, on a circular black platform, that has grey sides. Due to size constraints, I selected one 'arm' of the cross, and made a rectangular platform around it. For the card, I found the 'Space 1999' lettering as vector, and drew the MPC logo myself. NASA supplied the photo of earth in partial sunlight. To create (again) more variation, I wanted white LEDs around the landing platform, as seen in the TV-series. Luckily, club member Wim Hoogendoorn volunteered to do that, and he even added an Arduino to make the LEDs pulse slowly. The design went through numerous iterations to get the right look, but I'm happy with the result. And I got even happier when the LEDs were functional.

Number 10: Gunze-Sangyo 1/24 Austin-Healy Sprite, model built by Erik Leijdens The plan here was to make a display that mimicked the box closely. I found a great photo of polo playing, on which I drew the fence as seen on the box. Next, I found a photo of grass to park the car on. The connection between the two photos was a bit dodgy, but I hoped the car would block that mostly. Club member Erik Leijdens built the kit beautifully. A weak point is that you have to know the box before you appreciate the display. But still a classy display, I think!

Number 11: Monogram 1/32 Colonial Viper (1978), model built by Ted Spinders Another science-fiction display for a model by club member Ted Spinders. I went through a large number of design iterations with this display. I started with a rectangular panel, with the model 'flying' in front of it. The picture of the three main actors looked splendid on a black background. The first big change was making the panel trapezoid shaped, with a bar for the texts, which improved it greatly. The next change was having the model resting on a stylized launch rail. Only then we saw that the colors of the model and the display complemented each other greatly. Another nice display, thanks to many design iterations.

Number 12: Matchbox 'to paint or not to paint', models built by Leo Ripken We have two Matchbox specialists in our club: Reinhold Bogaard with his Matchbox website, and Leo Ripken, who built most of the 200 Matchbox models in their natural colors. And hence the large number of Matchbox-themed shop displays. I mixed Matchbox with Shakespeare, and came up with the slogan. The design looks a bit simplistic, and probably had too few design iterations. The initial idea was to use the Matchbox stands to pose the models in a more level attitude in front of the card. But it's too late, the models have been built by Leo Ripken and attached to the display. An original idea I think, but it could have used a few more iteration rounds.

Number 13: Matchbox 1/700 Graf Spee, model built by Leo Ripken A ship model was badly needed for the show, but I soon found out that many ship models are far too large for an A3-size print. Of course, prints larger than A3 could be made, but the cost goes up rapidly, and I had to work within a budget. Club member Leo Ripken had built a few of the Matchbox 1/700 ships. First choice was the Bismarck, but it was too big for an A3 print, so I took the smaller Graf Spee. I was lucky to find the clean box art painting in hi-resolution, so I could add my own texts and logo. I boosted the colors of the painting to create a visually attractive card. Lastly, I decided to make it a German-language shop display. Although simple and very rectangular, it looks fine to my eye.

Number 14: MPC 1/22 Snowspeeder, model built by Renzo Stuurman Simplicity was the key in this design: a tilted base plate with the model flying above it. I used elements from the box top of the original issue. Luckily, I found the 'Empire strikes back' logo as vector. The MPC logo I had to draw myself. I found a snow picture that I gave a strong 'motion blur'. And ready it was! New club member Renzo Stuurman committed himself to building the model. I had a Snowspeeder under construction too, but my models usually take years to get finished. Simple but sweet!

Number 15: Italeri 1/24 Mercedes-Benz truck, model built by Wim Hoogendoorn Club member Wim builds excellent truck models, and one had to be featured. He picked a Mercedes-Benz Actros truck, selecting a 4x2 truck because of the limited size of the display. I copied the strong blue color of Italeri boxes. Wim also supplied a short length of guard rail, to make the display a bit livelier. We test fitted the display with the model, and it looks excellent. The guard rail still needs to be fixed.

Number 16: Revell 1/4 Slant Six (1961), model built by Leo Ripken Club member Leo Ripken likes to build old models, and had built (or rather re-built) the old Revell Slant Six. I thought it would be a great subject for a display. Leo lent me the remains of the extremely worn box, and I copied and redrew most graphic elements to make a display in the same style and colors. The first version was far too small for the large model, so I made a second one, using the A3 print size to the limit. Finding the highly detailed engine cutaway drawing in hi-res was a lucky strike, and created an interesting background. To avoid too many rectangles, both base and card were made trapezoid-shaped. I love the color combination, and like this display a lot.

Number 17: Matchbox sprues, model built by Leo Ripken I really wanted to build a display that showed the runners (sprues) of a model. But I soon found out that such a display would be huge: the combined area of the runners of a typical kit is very large. I decided to take the smallest Matchbox kits, Purple Range, that had just two small runners. Showing both the runners and the finished model required a large display of an unusual shape. Shown here is the second design iteration, the first one was even bulkier. I decided on a purple display to match the Matchbox 'Purple range', but did not expect the bright plastic colors that Leo selected. However, the garish color combination does have a certain charm, and will attract attention. Every time I looked at this display, I'm amazed by the colors!

Number 18: Twelve Squared 1/72 XF-85 I didn't want to do displays for the big brands only, and decided to try 12 Squared, a small US outfit from the nineties that made nice low-pressure injection molded kits. Because the customer could be unsure of the quality, I reasoned that a display of the parts on the runners would be best suited. I played a bit with the arrangement, and was able to fit it on an A4. The logo was easy to duplicate, and I added some more text. Looking good, but not spectacular.

Number 19: Hasegawa eggplanes, models built by myself (build report) I wanted to do something with Hasegawa's eggplanes. The first idea was a direct hit: make a chicken that was frightened by its fresh clutch of two eggs / eggplanes. I looked online for cartoons of chickens, and combined three to make my own chicken. Showing the cloaca (and its size) was a bit of a question mark, but I decided not to be a prude. I made the card cutout egg-shaped too. The 'straw nest' is a bit poor, looking like uncooked spaghetti, but it will do. This turned out to be the funniest display by far. I love it.

Number 20: Matchbox display with two boxes, one model built by Leo Ripken, one model restored by Rob de Bie This display's concept started as one with a row of three boxes of aircraft models as the background. But there were too many aircraft-themed displays, and too few car-themed displays. The idea was changed, but the larger car model boxes limited the number of boxes to two. The selection of the models and boxes (of good quality) was a long and difficult process, but Reinhold Bogaard delivered the goods. We selected a thirties car and a seventies car, to show the variety of the Matchbox car models. It's a rather different display, but I think this is what a shop display could have looked like.

Number 21: submarine punched through Arctic ice, model built by Chris van Ravesteijn This display took the longest of all. The idea was the use a piece of 5 mm foamboard to simulate the arctic ice, which it does really well in 1/350 scale. I thought it would be nice to show only 10% of the model, only suggesting the rest. Club member Chris van Ravesteijn proposed a 1/350 Los Angeles class submarine. We added windows to show a bit more of the model, which made the display even more unique. To be continued.

Number 22: Monogram 1/24 NASCAR Buick Regal, model built by Rody Verkruissen We had no race car display yet, but club member Rody solved that when he brought his Monogram 1/24 NASCAR Buick Regal model to a club meeting. Because of the speedways with banked corners, I immediately thought of a 'banked' display, i.e. a wedge. However, the race on which I based the text, was a road track (ahum). I dressed up the display with sponsor markings and the car number, and a dirty asphalt race track, and later a low wall with more sponsor logos, with scratches. It became a nice busy display, and it looked great with a model placed on it. The green color mismatch is unfortunate, but budget was running out, preventing a reprint.

Number 23: Luftwaffe emblem, Hasegawa 1/48 Bf 109F model built by Frits Krieg A fresh idea was to place an aircraft on its unit emblem. I worked with club member Frits Krieg, who has a large collection of 1/48 Luftwaffe models. It wasn't easy to find a unit emblem that was easily recognized, but in the end we decided on the 'Richthofen' emblem. Then my modeling friend Eric Verschuur commented it still would look like a box lid, and that I should angle the walls. That created quite a geometry challenge, but I managed to sort it out, and the parts assembled perfectly. Club member Frits Krieg built an appropriate model. I think this one is one of the nicest so far.

Number 24: Airfix 1/72 'Hot Shots' Gnat, model built by myself (build report) This was the first film-themed display. I discovered a world of hi-res 'wallpaper' pictures, that make designing a shop display of a movie model rather easy. Laboriously I redrew the 'Hot Shots' movie logo and the Airfix logo in vector. But it still was a boring 'rectangular' display. That changed when I thought of cutting out the picture of lieutenant Hopper. That gave the display a very different look. I hurriedly built the model. When placed on the shop display, something was still missing, to convey the humor of the movie. I decided a parking meter, as seen in the movie, would solve that issue. I drew in 3D, and club member Wim Hoogendoorn printed it. An interesting variation on the theme.

Number 25: Revell harbor tug, model built by Edu de Roos This display was an exception: it was the only one that a club member (Edu) conceived in concept. I saved this one for last, since it involved making a partial paper model of a bulk carrier. I found a decent drawing of a bulk carrier, and used that to design the bow segment. After a whole evening of thinking how to design the complex and curved 'skin plate' mathematically or graphically, I still had no solution. Luckily, I found another solution, by building the decks first, and figuring out the skin shape by test-fitting. I even used my old French curves for the first time in 20 years! I then scanned that rough skin, redrew it in CorelDraw, and added some markings. A test print showed that it wrapped nicely around the decks. With the ship out of the way, the horizontal board was fairly easy. 'Brands of the World' gave me the Revell logo from the nineties, and Whatthefont gave me the typical font used on Revell boxes. I decided to do a Dutch-language box, since I hadn't done one so far. The water photo was found on the internet, and I tried to add the white foaming against the hulls. I'm not really sure it's realistic though. A test fit with a black and white test model of the bulk carrier, and the tug model, showed that it looked good, and that the mission was accomplished.

Number 26: Italeri 1/35 Sherman 'Fury', model built by Tim van Luyk The average age of our club members is definitely over 50, but we've got one young member too. He might end up with all of our stashes! I wanted to involve him too, and he proposed his recently-built Italeri Sherman tank from the 2014 movie 'Fury'. I went searching for a hi-res 'wallpaper' picture, and found several nice ones. I found the movie logo and converted that to vector graphics, so I could add a shadow to it later. The base is fairly simple, in the faded khaki and olive drab colors like the crew's clothing. I think a modern shop display could easily look like this. Mission accomplished.

Number 27: Anthony Fokkers QED, model built by Rob Hamann Club member Rob Hamann builds masters for his own line of resin aircraft models, 'Holland Aircraft Models'. As an extra, he made a 1/144 scale model of the yacht of Dutch aircraft designer Anthony Fokker, built late in his life while living in the USA. I thought it was a splendid model for a display. I found a great photo of Fokker late in his life, and also used a scan of a drawing of the yacht. Since the Fokker photo was in sepia tones, I made the base in sepia tones too. It's a bit of a gamble whether this would work with a full-color painted model. The texts are all in Dutch, since Dutch modelers are the target buyers, and it makes for something different. I feared that the sepia display and the full-color model would clash, but it looked fine. I like this tribute to a famous Dutchman.

Number 28: Heller 1/35 AMX-13-75, model built by Jan de Wit I was still short of tanks when club member Jan de Wit suggested his old Heller AMX-13-75. I decided to make a display in the style of the first-issue box from the seventies, in white with a pencil drawing of the tank, with fairly pale colors. I also used the period Heller logo. To make it a bit different, I enlarged the logo so it sat partially outside the borders of the card. Texts are all in French, and I even made a French flag border for the base. Maybe a bit too much, but again it was different. I thought this display would be a bit boring, but once the model was placed on it, it came alive. Bien!

Number 29: Williams 1/48 Ford Flivver, model built by Ruud van Zoomeren Club member Ruud van Zoomeren suggested his Williams Brothers Ford Flivver model. I liked the idea of making a display for one the smaller brands. This display started with the card: I had found a great black & white photo of Henry Ford with the Flivver. It made me think of making a cheap looking black & white display. But the result wasn't pleasing at all. I was stuck until my modeling friend Eric Verschuur suggested using an online photo coloring tool. It did excellent work on the left side of the photo, but crap on the right side. I decided to do the right side myself, in CorelDraw. It doesn't look very realistic, but it's good enough. I also made the 'F O R' lettering on the lower side of the wing blue-ish, following the Williams Brothers manual. For the base, I copied the Ford logo shape, and added a quote by Henry Ford regarding the future of aviation. This display improved greatly once a model was placed on it, and I started to appreciate it, it is quite stylish.

Number 30: Heller 1/72 Bloch 174, model built by Patrick Verschut For this Heller display I decided to go 'cultural', focusing on a famous-in-France writer that flew the real thing, who wrote a popular book based on his experiences. Plus, it offered the opportunity for something I had planned for a long time: a battle map, in this case the German invasion of France in May 1940. It would be covered partly by the model, but I hope the viewers will still recognize it as such. Regarding colors and fonts, I made it in the style of the 1979 box: black with fat lettering. The finished product was a nice variation on the subject, despite the standard layout.

Number 31: Classic Resin Airframes 1/48 Fokker G1b, model built by Frits Krieg I challenged many people to come up with alternative shapes, since I was fed up with rectangular bases and background cards. Most people drew a blank, but one suggested a triangle. I was baffled at first, until I realized that the pre-war Dutch air force (LVA) had triangular nationality markings. I quick search through our club meeting reports turned up Frits Krieg's Classic Resin Airframes Fokker G1, modified from a G1a to a G1b, in all green camouflage - perfect. CRA never made a G1b, but since it all fantasy anyway, that doesn't matter. The triangular base was quickly designed. The company logo was difficult, with a unique font and griffons that were a bitch to recreate. The rest of the texts were easy once the font from the box label was established. I could not attach the card to the base, since the tail had a bit of overhang. Instead I made a brass wire bracket, in itself another nice variation. A really sweet display with a bitter-sweet aftertaste. Club member Frits Krieg fell ill, and could not attend the ESM show with his models on display.

Number 32: Airfix 1/24 Wallis Autogyro, model built by Rogier Aulbers Club member Rogier Aulbers had built a Wallis autogyro, a great subject to make a display for. Again I tried a different layout: it's somewhat like the Verlinden 'Mule' display, with a tilted card, but the 'deck' is integral. Another new ingredient were the photos of the real thing. It was difficult to fit the display on an A3, with the result that the large-scale autogyro barely fits. Still, one happy club member and one happy display designer!

Number 33: AMT Ford Pinto Car modelers have been begging for a 1974 Dodge Monaco sedan to build the 'Bluesmobile' from the movie 'The Blues Brothers'. But the same modelers are apparently not interested in the antagonists' car: the 1977 or 1978 Pinto Wagon of the 'American Socialist White People's Party'. And that car is available from AMT, although out of production. After a very long search, I found a glue bomb. And one day later I had designed a shop display for it. Only after printing, I saw that I made the background panel very large compared to the model. And club members told me the Pinto should be suspended, 'flying' like in the hilarious scene on the rear panel. I have to think about that. I like that the model is 'edgy' with its 'White Power' stickers, and that no model manufacturer would ever touch this subject :-) Even though Luftwaffe models feature the same swastikas, without hardly anyone blinking an eye. This display evokes two distinct response: people who don't know the movie shrug their shoulders, all others grin and smile, and often quote movie lines like "We're on a mission from God" ..

In conclusion

I have to thank our model club, IPMS-NL regio Zuid-Holland, for helping to realise this idea. The club members supplied a large part of the models and inspiration, and the club paid for the printing and material costs. The display at the 2023 Euro Scale Modeling event gave us the fifth award for 'Best Branch/SIG display' in eleven tries - but we work really hard on them!

It would be a wonderful experiment to put one or two of these fictitious displays in the window of a real model shop and see whether it has a effect on the sales of those kits. In the Netherlands, some 50 model shops remain. It has to be one in a busy shopping street, with old-fashined windows filled with products. But maybe the public doesn't look shop windows anymore?

As for the concept of shop displays for scale models in general: I hope the examples shown here will inspire other modelers to make their own. The are nearly endless possibilities, only limited by imagination. Go for it!