South African Garage & General Store

[Kevin WS]

Bingo - there were other buildings...

It is interesting that there are buildings that appear in one picture but not the other.

It looks like 16 buildings in total.

Very very representative of a small town (dorp).

[SCEtoAUX]

Looks like a good setup for a RPG battle. Set up the miniatures, the fight is on!

[Don Boose]

A very nice village diorama and set of buildings. Any more information about the provenance or about the young man shown in the image (either meant to represent a model builder in an advertisement for the set, or the actual model builder showing off his diorama)?

[Kevin WS]

Don - No information that I could pick up on regarding the B and W photo.

However, my guess is he is the proud builder of the model of the village shown.

I base this on the fact that I found some reference to a Caltex Competition for the best village.

It appears that the models were available from Caltex Service Stations - often two in a pack (certainly the smaller ones) and the packaging had details of the competition as well as building instructions. The packaging confirms there were 15 models - which means the larger ones were packed in singles.

[Kevin WS]

Incidentally, I was incorrect in the heading for this post - I meant to put Post Office and General Store!

So the buildings are

1. General Store
2. Office
3. School
4. Cottage
5. Church
6. Petrol Station

The first 4 are confirmed. The last two are identifiable from the photos.

The other builds are houses etc but need to wait until we can ID the actual name.

-------------------------

I will contact Caltex locally and see if they have anything. I do not have high hopes, but nothing lost nothing gained!

Corporates are notorious for destroying their history - I worked for a global corporate with a history back to 1800s. They had a clear-out and threw all their archives into skips in London.

These also included unique wood and brass models especially commissioned, and also dating from the 1800s and early 1900s. To top it all they also had a library, which they also threw away wholesale - it included every single copy of Punch ever published, as well as complete sets of other magazines and first editions.

While still working for them, I queried something with HO - no clue as everything had gone!

[Erik Zwaan]

This thread got me curious. Google for caltexdal and you end up at Flickr and pictures posted by a guy with the very Southafrican name of Etienne du Plessis. After browsing through the info it becomes clear that he is the boy in the b&w picture, having won the building competition as a fourteen year old!

Cheers,
Erik

[Kevin WS]

Thank you Eik.

That's interesting info!

[SCEtoAUX]

Something kind of interesting on that Flickr site in the comments:

Peter Levey 2y
I have a number of these sets that I'm wanting to sell. Any idea where I can find collectors.

Etienne du Plessis 2y
Peter, Google Card Models.........there are quite a few.
You could try this one as well www.papermodelers.com/forum/card-models/

Peter Levey 2y
Thanks

[Kevin WS]

Thanks Doug.

I suppose I will have to register for Flickr now so I can have a better look!